The word 'sugar' is pronounced shugar?
2007-02-18 08:39:26 · 5 answers · asked by mistickle17 5 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
The first part of "sugar" used to be pronounced more like "sue." The vowel in that syllable is a high, back vowel and sometimes consonants change to be more like the vowels that are near them. (It's called "assimilation.") Anyway, "sh" is a sound that's pronounced higher in your mouth than "s," so the word changed from being something like "soogar" to "shoogar," and then the first vowel dropped to become our modern "sugar."
Sometimes sound changes are isolated (they affect only one word)--so not all English words beginning in "su-" or "sug-" are going to sound the same.
2007-02-18 08:46:23 · answer #1 · answered by K © 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
e English word "suga" may ultimately originate from the Sanskrit word sharkara or śarkarā, which means "sugar" or "pebble". It probably came to English by way of the French, Spanish and/or Italians who derived their word for sugar from the Arabic al sukkar (whence the Portuguese word açucar, the Spanish word azúcar, the Italian word zucchero, the Old French word zuchre and the contemporary French word sucre). The Arabs in turn presumably derived their word from the Persian shakar, derived from the original Sanskrit.
2007-02-18 08:46:22 · answer #2 · answered by violetb 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It is said [see ref] that Sometime in the Middle English period the initial letters su shifted to the pronunciation they now have.
Sure . . .
2007-02-18 08:46:36 · answer #3 · answered by Aslan, reborn 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nope sorry !
2007-02-19 03:35:07 · answer #4 · answered by stace 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
no sorry
2007-02-18 08:47:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋