Pronouncing the plural S endings

aaaacccchhhh It is too complicated...
Regards

Quote-''I wrote "[..z] or [iz]". Note Smith's [diS..z]. I don't know whether this is a typo or just an odd one out but I think your accent plays a part too. I never say [iz] for me it's [..z].''

Yes, that was a typo. I meant [diSiz]. I think [iz] is more common than [..z] for ''-es''. I've never heard ''-es'' pronounced as [..z] before. And the dictionary lists only [iz] for ''-es'' if you look up ''house'' and see it's plural.

But your dictionary probably wasn't written in Australia. It could be just me but I think all Australians would use [..z]; [iz] just doesn't seem right to me. Anyway, as I say, it's probably just an accent thing.

I checked a British dictionary once and it listed only [iz]. So, Australians pronounce ''-ed'' as [..d] and ''-es'' as [..z].

As far as I can make out we do. I used to think that everyone did.

Quote-''but I don't know any word which ends in [h] or [W].'' I don't know of any word which ends in [h] or [W] either nor do I know any word that ends in [j] or [w].

People where I am from do not pronounce the e's in "dishes" and "matches." They are silent. I can't think of any American midwesterner I know of who I've heard pronounce the plural of these with a z sound. When I try to pronounce them like how you say they should be pronounced, it sounds excessively proper to me, especially in "dishes."

In Chicago and Milwaukee, the Polish-American dialect there even goes so far as to pronounce a word ending with "r" with a /s/ sound rather than a /z/ sound. This was made fun of in a popular Saturday Night Live skit called "Da Bearss," referring to Chicago Bears American football fans.

Have a look at the bottom of page four of the following.

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/linguistics/documents/q1027_lecture_12.pdf

It says that /..z/ and /..d/ is the norm in Australian and Estuary English.

pity = /piti(:)/
rosy = /rOuzi(:)/

pitied = /piti(:)d/
Rosie's = /rOuzi(:)z/

pitted = /pit..d/
roses = /rOuz..z/

littered = /lit..d/
Rosa's = /rOuz..z/