English for Science Pronouncing Polysyllables

1. English for SciencePronouncing Polysyllables Long words, stress patterns and clues for saying the right thing.

2. What's going on here? What's stress? • Stress, stress marks and clues to where words are stressed; • In words with 2 or more syllables. • In English as in German, some syllables in polysyllabic words receive more emphasis than others. • Stressed vowels have a more distinct, unstressed a less distinct sound.

3. Stress in the wrong place, stress marks • Stress on the wrong syllable may result in unintentional mirth. • Try this with a foreigner: Give him a list of past participles beginning with umge- and then ask him/her to pronounce the word Umgebung. • (S)he will probably say: 'Umge'bung instead of Um'gebung because the past participles (e.g. 'umge'fahren) are pronounced that way. • A stress mark (') indicates where the stress is.

4. Stress Marks: bisyllables/Stress Clues • Sometimes stress may be on either syllable, changing the function of the word, e.g.: • 'produce, n. (Erzeugnis) • pro'duce, v.t. (erzeugen) Clues • In words with > 2 syllables look for: • endings like –ic; • the CIA group (sh!); • or the third last syllable.

5. -ic Rules and Examples • -ic, -ical, -ically: • are all stressed on the syllable before the –ic. • 'practical 'practically; • 'skeptic 'skeptical 'skeptically; • 'basic 'basically; • 'physical 'physically. • At least one exception: 'rhetoric.

6. CIA (sh!) Rules and Examples • Common to this group are: CSTG • the sounds ʃ,ʧ,ʒ or ʤ; • the i is indistinct; • the final vowel is minimalised (ə). OA I facialspatialAsia stationtensionregion

7. More CIA (sh!) • Keep an eye open for the CIA group which has a number of different spellings including those with other initial letters including: • tu (ʧ), su(ʃ, ʒ): 'nature, 'lesion, 'leisure; • ni, nu: 'onion, 'tenure; • ri: me'morial. • And, unfortunately, CIA spellings which do not indicate stress, e.g. associ'ation.

8. Third Last Syllable Rule and Examples • If the –ic or CIA rules do not apply then a word of Latin or Greek origin may be stessed on the third last, or antepenultimate syllable. • 'ultimate = last • pe'nultimate = second (nearly) last • antepe'nultimate = third last

9. Conflict? • 'photograph • pho'tographerbut • photo'graphic • In the last example the –ic rule prevails.