The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[Torco]

oh, right... drat
bla:."Go.je.vitS then,

[Lyra]

Don't you have anything else better to do?

[doʊɳjʊæβnɪθɪŋ'bedɚdədʊ] or [doʊndʒʊəvnθn'bedɚdədʊ]

~Lyra

[Travis B.]

Loyola: /lɔɪ̯ˈjolə/ > [ʟ̞ɔɪ̯ˈjoːɯ̯ə(ː)]~[ɰɔɪ̯ˈjoːɯ̯ə(ː)]
Chicago: /ʃɪˈkɒɡo/ > [ʃɨˈkʰɒːɡ̊o(ː)]
Rod Blagojevich: /ˌrad blɛˈɡɔɪ̯jəvɪtʃ/ > [ˌɰˤaːd̥b̥ʟ̞ɛːˈɡ̊ɔɪ̯jəːvɨʔtʃ]~[ˌɰˤaːd̥b̥ɰɛːˈɡ̊ɔɪ̯jəːvɨʔtʃ]
Rahm Emanuel: /ˌram ɪˈmɛnjuɜl/ > [ˌɰˤaːmɨ̃ːˈmɛ̃ː(n)juːwɜ̟(ː)ɯ̯]

[Whimemsz]

Loyola : /loɪ'joʊlə/
Chicago : /ʃɪ'kɑɡoʊ/ = [ʃᵻ'kʰɑːɡoʊ]
Rahm Emanuel : /'ɹɑm ɪ'mænjɪwəl/
Rod Blagojevich : /'ɹɑd blə'ɡoɪjɪvɪtʃ/

(I'm analyzing my unstressed [ᵻ]s as phonemically equivalent to /ɪ/, because they don't contrast, and because as far as I can tell I perceive them as /ɪ/)

Torco and Lyra, stop pronouncing "Chicago" wrong >:|. It starts with /ʃ/!

EDIT: "Don't you have anything better to do" (reasonably careful speech) : /'doʊntʃu hæv 'ɛniθɪŋ 'bɛɾɚɾɪˌdu/

[finlay]

Don't you have anything else better to do?

[doʊɳjʊæβnɪθɪŋ'bedɚdədʊ] or [doʊndʒʊəvnθn'bedɚdədʊ]

~Lyra

[dəʊntʃɪavɛnɪθɪŋɛwsˈpɛʔɚtʰədʉː]

but i keep saying "anything better" rather than "anything else better", which seems like a more common rendering of this phrase: [ɛnɪθɪmbɛʔɚ]

also "don't you" varies between [ntʃ] and [nʔj]

[Torco]

Torco and Lyra, stop pronouncing "Chicago" wrong >:|. It starts with /ʃ/!

really? that's cool to know, thanks ! I've heard it plenty of times but I just mentally affricated it, it seems

[Radius Solis]

First, read the following list of words/names, then tell me how you would pronounce just the last rwo, including stress indication; preferably, if possible, before reading any other replies to this. Thanks!

azimuth
prednisone
television
Reddenbacher
Studebaker
purgatory
kookaburra
azimuthal
prednisolone


(I'm testing a hypothesis. I'll explain afterwards.)

[Lyra]

azimuthal: [æzɪ'məθäɫ]
prednisolone: [predə'nɪsəloʊn]

~Lyra

[linguoboy]

'aziˌmuthal
'predniˌsolone

[Bob Johnson]

Don't you have anything else better to do?

[don.tʃu.æv.ɪ.ni.θɪŋ.bɛ.ɾɻ̩.də.du]

like finlay, "else better" doesn't work. there's an intonation thingy at <better> but I forgot how to write it

azimuthal
prednisolone

[ˈæ.zəˌmʊ.θ(ə)l] or maybe it's ˌˈ
[pɻ(ɛ|ə)ˈnɪ.səˌloʊn]

[æ] can't exist without stress; drug names always throw me

[finlay]

[ˌazɪˈmjʉθəɫ]
[prɛdˈnɪsəloʊn]

[Travis B.]

azimuthal: /ˈɛˌzɪməθəl/ > [ˈɛːˌzɪ̃məθɯ̞(ː)]
prednisolone: /ˈprɜdnizəˌlon/ > [ˈpʰɰˤɜ̟ːnːɨːzəːˌʟ̞o(ː)n]~[ˈpʰɰˤɜ̟ːnːɨːzəːˌɰo(ː)n]

[Whimemsz]

azimuthal = /ə'zɪˌmjuˌθɑl/ = [ə'zɪːˌmjᵿˌθɒ]
prednisolone = /ˌpɹɛd'nɪsˌɪloʊn/ = [ˌpʰɹɛʔ'nɪːsᵻˌloʊn] -- I'm less sure about this one

(Not sure if these are actual words, but I'm reading them as I would if they were drug names)
(I note all the first set of words have initial stress, which I suspect is part of what you're looking into)

[AnTeallach]

[ˌazɪˈmjʉθəɫ]
[prɛdˈnɪsəloʊn]

Same, except [ʊ] for the third vowel of the first one and a monophthong in the last syllable of the second one.

[----]

azimuthal [ˈʔæzɨmɯθʟ̩]
prednisolone [pɹ̠ʷɛdˈnɨsɫ̩ɞ̃ũn]

[Radius Solis]

Azimuthal and prednisolone are real words, but only the second is a drug name. The first is just the adjective form of azimuth, while prednisolone is a metabolite of prednisone, a corticosteroid. But so few people here are likely to use these words regularly that we shouldn't have very strong feelings about where the lexically-assigned stress is (as evidenced by remarks about uncertainty). Thus they are good for investigating stress rules.

The other words in the list were all designed to lead people into an initial-stress response (by listing first the roots the two words are based on, to reinforce that connection, and then by listing other words that have the stress pattern that would result); my hypothesis was that we would nevertheless assign stress to medial syllables for both words.

For prednisolone this bore out: six out of eight responses stressed the "nis" syllable. FWIW this appears to be the right one - that's how my ophthalmologist says it, and he would presumably use that word on a daily basis.
For azimuthal, it was much less clear what the consensus should be: four of eight left the stress initial, three moved it to "muth", and one moved it to "zim".

I don't know where this leads. My question now is, why is there such a strong attraction of stress to the "nis" syllable of prednisolone? And why does this apparently not hold for azimuthal?

[Bob Johnson]

The other words in the list were all designed to lead people into an initial-stress response

I tend to have initial-stress anyway. Also Azimuthal projections...

I don't know where this leads. My question now is, why is there such a strong attraction of stress to the "nis" syllable of prednisolone? And why does this apparently not hold for azimuthal?

/oʊ/ is heavy -- [ˈsoʊˈloʊn] sounds wrong, and the spelling rules out ["soʊl.n̩]. Plus drug names tend to get antepenult.

[Radius Solis]

I don't know where this leads. My question now is, why is there such a strong attraction of stress to the "nis" syllable of prednisolone? And why does this apparently not hold for azimuthal?

/oʊ/ is heavy -- [ˈsoʊˈloʊn] sounds wrong, and the spelling rules out ["soʊl.n̩]. Plus drug names tend to get antepenult.

But what, then, is wrong with ˈprednisoˌlone? This stress pattern appears in other words, like "caramelize" and "catheterize", so the pattern can't be outright illegal.

[Astraios]

But what, then, is wrong with ˈprednisoˌlone? This stress pattern appears in other words, like "caramelize" and "catheterize", so the pattern can't be outright illegal.

You're comparing words with two schwas in a row with one with an /I/.

[Torco]

I don't know where this leads. My question now is, why is there such a strong attraction of stress to the "nis" syllable of prednisolone? And why does this apparently not hold for azimuthal?

maybe the dn cluster makes the following syllable heavier? It makes it much more awkward for me, which tempts me to stress it.

[Bob Johnson]

But what, then, is wrong with ˈprednisoˌlone? This stress pattern appears in other words, like "caramelize" and "catheterize", so the pattern can't be outright illegal.

Hrm.. I can manage [ˈpɻɛd.nəˌsloʊn]. btw, [kɛɻ.(ə.)mə.laɪz], [kæθ.(ə.)tɻ.aɪz]

[Travis B.]

I don't know where this leads. My question now is, why is there such a strong attraction of stress to the "nis" syllable of prednisolone? And why does this apparently not hold for azimuthal?

/oʊ/ is heavy -- [ˈsoʊˈloʊn] sounds wrong, and the spelling rules out ["soʊl.n̩]. Plus drug names tend to get antepenult.

But what, then, is wrong with ˈprednisoˌlone? This stress pattern appears in other words, like "caramelize" and "catheterize", so the pattern can't be outright illegal.

This, indeed, is how I would tend to pronounce it, by analogy with prednisone /ˈprɜdnɪˌzon/ > [ˈpʰɰˤɜ̟ːnːɨːˌzõ(ː)n] (itself probably by analogy with the likes of cortisone /ˈkortɪˌzon/ > [ˈkʰɔʁˤ(ɾ̥)ɨːˌzõ(ː)n]); i.e. to me it is almost the same word but with another unstressed syllable being inserted.

On that note, I have only three syllables here:
carmelize: /ˈkarməˌlae̯z/ > [ˈkʰɑːʁˤmɯ̞ːˌʟ̞ae̯s]~[ˈkʰɑːʁˤmɯ̞ːˌɰae̯s]

but four syllables here:
catheterize: /ˈkɛθɪtəˌrae̯z/ > [ˈkʰɛθɨɾ̥ʁ̩ˤːˌʁˤae̯s]

[Travis B.]

I don't know where this leads. My question now is, why is there such a strong attraction of stress to the "nis" syllable of prednisolone? And why does this apparently not hold for azimuthal?

maybe the dn cluster makes the following syllable heavier? It makes it much more awkward for me, which tempts me to stress it.

It should be noted that it's not uncommon to, in practice, assimilate /dn/ like that together as [nː], which might indeed contribute to a perception of increased syllable weight. However, the problem, is that were so, one would expect a penultimate stress on prednisone, when in fact ˈpredniˌsone is stressed like ˈcortiˌsone.

[Torco]

stressing the syllable before a long nasal is quite common in italian, for example.

[Imralu]

But what, then, is wrong with ˈprednisoˌlone? This stress pattern appears in other words, like "caramelize" and "catheterize", so the pattern can't be outright illegal.

You're comparing words with two schwas in a row with one with an /I/.

I would pronounce Prednisolone with two schwas in a row, like caramelise and catheterise.