Consonants /ʒ/ versus /j/, 0 pairs     [gigue.html]

The dictionary search failed to find any words with this pairing. /ʒ/ is in any case very rare and does not occur in syllable initial position except in a few French loan words such as gendarme, while /j/ is restricted to syllable-initial occurrence. There is no reason why there should not be a pairing with a loan word, such as gigue versus *yeag (if there was such a word) but none have surfaced. If English were to adopt gendre from French it might then contrast with yonder, but it has not happened

John Higgins, Shaftesbury, December 2010
updated Chiang Mai, 2024