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I gather from the dictionary that pen is pronounced as /pen/ and pence as /pens/. Is the plural pens pronounced as /pens/ or /penz/?

GGG
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    It's pronounced penz. Sibilants are normally voiced if they come immediately after a voiced consonant. – Robusto Dec 13 '17 at 15:38
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    Not exactly. There is a tendency, but not a rule, for voicing to continue from one segment to the next. Pence is an exception (the final sibilant in Pence is not voiced, though the sound preceding it is), and exceptions like this are not all that hard to find. The plural of pen, on the other hand, uses the{-Z₁} inflection morpheme, and the sibilants in the allomorphs of this suffix are always voiced after voiced sounds. – John Lawler Dec 13 '17 at 15:57
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    "Pence" rhymes with "dense", "immense", or "tense". But "pens" with "hens", or "tens". – WS2 Dec 13 '17 at 16:16
  • The rule for the pronunciation of the plural suffix -(e)s is the same as the rule for the pronunciation of -'s – herisson Dec 13 '17 at 18:07
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    For more details about the phonetic realization of the phonemic contrast between word-final /s/ and word-final /z/ in English, see Are “whores” and “horse” homophones? (They aren't, and "pens" and "pence" aren't either; the words ending in the phoneme /s/ exhibit something called "pre-fortis clipping") – herisson Dec 13 '17 at 18:10
  • @Robusto Well, kinda. Sibilant suffixes are normally lenis (in other words notionally voiced) after voiced consonants (or indeed vowels). Consider fence, else, mince, tense, false etc – Araucaria - Him Dec 13 '17 at 20:38
  • The ending sounds of pens and pence are much the same as those of pans and pants. – Sven Yargs Dec 14 '17 at 03:47

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