What's in (my niece's) name

[strannik01]

Last weekend, I went to Madison, mostly to hang out with my niece and my sister. Which, in spite of everybody over there being sick to some extent or another, I actually managed to do. And Anna and I actually wound up having the longest and deepest conversation in quite a while. We talked head-on about some of the things that we never really talk

Comments

[bigstonedragon]

Буквосочетание "zh" используется для обозначения звука "ж" в польском языке, и, видимо, именно оттуда перешло и в английский.

[hettie_lz]

nope. it's rz in Polish :)

[bigstonedragon]

Oh! Mea culpa :-)
Могу тогда предположить, что "zh" происходит из "озвончения" дифтонга "sh" и изобретено самими же англичанами :-)

[hettie_lz]

Yep :)

[benicek]

So is ж the same as ž in Czech?

[strannik01]

The best I can tell from Russian Wikipedia, it pretty much is.

[benicek]

Maybe a better way to Latinise it for English speakers would be with a j or g.

[strannik01]

I don't think so. Even if "zh" isn't intuitive, at least it implies a distinct sound from "j." With "j," Americans are going to want to pronounce it as "j." With "zh," I can at least say that a combination of the letters stands for a difference sounds, like how "oo" is "u," or whatever the "th" sound is supposed to be. And "g" isn't even close to "ж."

Like I said, Americans seem to have no trouble pronouncing "Zhivago," so the trick is to teach them to use the similar sound when it's not in the beginning of the sentence.