/d/ becoming /ʤ/

/d/ → /ʤ/

 

Here we have our second case of coalescence, one in which the alveolar /d/ followed by the palatal /j/ turns into the post-alveolar /ʤ/. Like the /t/ becoming /ʧ/ process, it’s an extremely common case and, thus, well worth learning.

 

Therefore,

/d/ (followed by /j/) becomes /ʤ/

sound_loud_speaker Would you mind closing the window?

sound_loud_speaker Did you know he was my friend?

sound_loud_speaker D’you want me to help you?

 

This is the type of work I do with my students in my one-to-one classes. I make them practise these processes with exercises until they improve their comprehension of native speakers and are capable of speaking like that themselves. If you are interested in my classes, you can contact me here.

And here are some examples from real life:

sound_loud_speaker If you go back several hundred years, you can see that… (Michael Rosen, BBC4). |ˈhʌndrəd ˈjɪəz| → |ˈhʌndrə ˈdʒɪəz|

sound_loud_speaker Once you got the Papacy, you can then use it to embed your family not only in ecclesiastical positions but also in aristocratic positions (Evelyn Welch, BBC4).

|ɪmˈbed jɔː ˈfæməli| → |ɪmˈbe dʒɔː ˈfæməli|

sound_loud_speaker Would audiences be surprised by how hard you sometimes work [in]to create that very naturalistic performance? (Lauren Laverne, BBC3).

sound_loud_speaker The point about this training was, it prepared you to either to be secretary to a leading nobleman or for council. It prepared you to actually enter the political world, and these subjects were at the heart of the Renaissance curriculum that courtiers were supposed to learn (John Guy, BBC4).

 

Again, this can be found within a single word very frequently:

sound_loud_speaker The pendulum is very definitely swinging back the other way at present (John Hines, BBC4). /ˈpendjələm/ → /ˈpendʒələm/

sound_loud_speaker Alexander was brought up and educated with a very close group of young noble Macedonian friends (Rachel Mairs, BBC4). /ˈedjʊkeɪtɪd/ → /ˈedʒukeɪtɪd/

sound_loud_speaker And later, fifty years later, [he] engaged in a duel with a fire-breathing dragon (Melvyn Bragg, BBC4). /ˈdjuːəl/ → /ˈdʒuːəl/ Notice that, because of this assimilation, duel becomes a homophone of jewel.

 

And here is a word that is pronounced only in one way, the assimilated form:

sound_loud_speaker soldier /ˈsəʊldʒə/

 

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