User:Ghoti/Unreliable rule for pronouncing "s" based on its adjacent sounds

In this page the sounds /s/ and /z/ of the letter "s" are explored. It can be seen than in many cases the sound is voiced (/z/) if the adjacent sounds also are. Similarly the sound is voiceless (/s/) if at least one adjacent sound also is. The "rule" shown here doesn't always hold. A better approach is in Advanced decoding exercises: /s/ vs /z/.

Many words that are spelled with "s" are pronounced with /s/ while others are pronounced with /z/. Students who have never heard the words must memorize them. Heteronyms are particularly relevant here.

This article doesn't explain other sounds, such as /ʃ/ or /ʒ/. The digraph "ss" is not studied here.

Color code
Green: the rule holds, no exceptions

Yellow: the rule holds, there are exceptions

Red: the rule doesn't hold

Blue: the rule doesn't hold, however, there are no exceptions

Initial
No words beginning with /z/ are spelled with "s". Therefore, the rule is false but there are no ambiguities. When there are mute or redundant consonants we may take them at their original value (voiceless p, voiceless c).

Final
(*) See Pronunciation of the morpheme “-s”

adj. adjective, n. noun, v. verb n., etc any part of speech except verb


 * homophones /s/: peace/piece
 * homophones /z/: freeze/frees (v.); maze/maize/Mae's; pause/paws; please/pleas; raise/rays; size/sighs


 * minimal pairs: advice - advise; bus - buzz; face - phase; hiss - his; ice - eyes; grace - graze; lice - lies; loose - lose; niece - knees; once - ones; peace - peas; place - plays; price - prize; race - raise/rays; rice - rise;
 * heteronyms: abuse (n. - v.); close (adj. - v.); excuse (n. - v.); house (n. - v.)


 * silent "s": Arkansas - debris - Illinois

Mid-position
n., etc any part of speech except verb v. verb


 * minimal pairs: precedent/president
 * heteronyms: resent /rɪˈzent, riːˈsent/

Adjacent to consonants
Note: In this section and the next a silent "r" (as in "course") is considered a consonant.

Initial
There is only one possibility: sound /s/ spelled "s" However the rule doesn't hold for /l/, /m/, /n/ and /w/

Final

 * minimal pairs: dense - dens; since - sins; tense - tens;


 * silent "s": corps

Vowel is first

 * silent "s": aisle - island

Vowel follows "s"
Note that words with unvoiced consonants are really scarce, unless they are derived from another word (e.g. plurals).

Summary
Looking at the red-and-yellow rows above, the following pairs of words summarize the /s/-/z/ exceptions to the adjacency "rule". Note that here there are more exceptions than if we thought the "rule" does not apply. See Advanced decoding exercises: /s/ vs /z/.
 * Agnes - Achilles (nouns)
 * us - as (other)


 * goose - cheese (nouns)
 * increase - cause (verbs)


 * basic - music (nouns)
 * desolate - desire (verbs)


 * dense - cleanse
 * parsley - Thursday
 * answer - damsel

Variant pronunciations
Some words may be pronounced either with /s/ or with /z/. In some cases there is a regional variant.


 * absorb - explosive - resource - treatise - usage
 * /s/ in BrE, /z/ in AmE: asthma /ˈæsmə, ˈæzmə/
 * /z/ in BrE, /s/ in AmE: blouse - diagnose - erase

Several personal names spelled with "s" are pronounced with either /s/ or /z/.


 * Denise - Jesus (normal pronunciation is /ˈdʒiːzəs/; altenative pronunciation is /ˈdʒiːzəz/) - Joseph - Josephine - Lisa - Teresa - Theresa