General Question

rebbel's avatar

How do you pronounce pronunciation?

Asked by rebbel (35549points) May 3rd, 2012

The word pronounce I know already for decades; the word pronunciation only for some years maybe the way it is written, that is.
Pronounce I pronounce pronowns.
Pronunciation I pronounce pronownsiaysian.
Seeing the way that word is written I suspect it is (should be) pronounced different.
How do you pronounce pronunciation?

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19 Answers

Blackberry's avatar

Pro-nun-see-a-shun.

Pied_Pfeffer's avatar

You are correct in your suspicion that the word is pronounced differently in this form, at least in the US. Here is a link to the pronunciation of ‘pronunciation’ where you can also hear how it sounds.

MilkyWay's avatar

Pro- nown- si- ay- tion.

mangeons's avatar

I pronounce it as pro-nun-see-ay-shun.

Jeruba's avatar

The second syllable rhymes with sun, fun, and done.

Primary accent (stress) is on the next-to-last syllable, secondary accent on the second.

harple's avatar

Already answered above, but it is one of the most amusing words that gets mispronounced – always brings a smile to my face :-)

JLeslie's avatar

Pro-nun-see-a-shun.

I’m in America.

Jeruba's avatar

That syllable is the same as in enunciation, renunciation, and annunciation.

gailcalled's avatar

Denounce and denunciation
Announce and annunciation
Renounce and renunciation
Enounce Enunciate and enunciation

gasman's avatar

pronounce vs. pronunciation
= noun vs. nun
Different in both cases
I didn’t realize this until I was about 30.

DominicX's avatar

prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən

Though I often pronounce the first schwa more like /o/, at least when I’m enunciating it.

“Pronunciation” has a different vowel sound due to trisyllabic laxing, whereby a tense vowel (such as a long vowel or diphthong, as in the “ow” sound in “pronounce”) becomes lax (meaning short, thus to the “uh” sound in “fun”) when two unstressed syllables follow it. Compare: insane vs. insanity, serene vs. serenity, etc.

Berserker's avatar

@MilkyWay Exactly like that for me, too.

saylo_0's avatar

PRO-NONE-SEE-A-SHUN

PRO-NUN-CI-A-TION

SavoirFaire's avatar

Pro-nun-see-ay-shun.

Relevant.

bewailknot's avatar

Pro-nun-see-aa-shun

prasad's avatar

You may hear it here:
pronounce
pronunciation

I guess, say pro-‘nun-see-AY-shun.
Edit: Sorry, I didn’t notice it in above posts.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Nunce, nunce, nunce.

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