Bumping this thread, in respect of a regional-pronunciation matter which I encountered lately -- from a song heard on a You Tube item, performed by a Canadian singer.
The word concerned, is "leisure". Will set out the word's second consonant, as "zh" -- like the J in the French name Jacques. There seem to be (at least) two possible pronunciations for this word. "Lezher" -- to rhyme (vowels-wise) with "fed her"; and "Leezher" -- to rhyme with "feed her".
In my country, the UK, I have only ever heard "lezher". I've heard from Canadians (including, but not only, in the the You Tube instance mentioned above), "leezher". And I had a friend who was from New Zealand, who pronounced it "leezher". The "leezher" pronunciation sounds strange, at least to this Brit; but, of course, a case of "whatever is standard practice / accustomed, for you".
Would be interested to know how this word is pronounced in the USA -- maybe it varies according to what part of the States? And, should any Aussie participants be around; what's the pronunciation in Australia?