zézayer

French

Etymology

Onomatopoeic formation from a reduplication of z.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ze.zɛ.je/, /ze.ze.je/
  • (file)

Verb

zézayer

  1. to pronounce "zh" (/ʒ/) as "z" (/z/) and "sh" (/ʃ/) as "s" (/s/); loosely, to lisp, to slur

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer, the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to both groups, according to the writer's preference).

Synonyms

Further reading

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