Date:  Wed, 1 Dec 1993 09:39:53 EST

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: th/dh



I realize from Donald Lance's posting that another minimal pair for the above

in the relevant dialect(s) would be bath's (voiceless) vs. baths or baths'

(voiced). Again, not a particularly high functional load, as we used to say.

Thanks for the suggestions on sh/zh, folks, but I'm afraid my _fission_ is as

voiceless as my _fishin'_ and my _tressure_ is non-existent (except in the

context "I know _treasure_ but not _tressure_"); it's apparently something to

do with hair-dressing.

  As for houses, my favorite datum comes from a linguist colleague whose

identity will be shielded here. She claims to have always distinguished

_housewife_ ([HAWSwayf] as for everyone else) from _housewives_ (which she

pronounces [HAWZwayvz], with all fricatives voiced). Some form of voicing

harmony or regressive assimilation, but limited to this lexical item. (She's

in her 40's and grew up in southern New England.)    --Larry Horn