In this entry, is the American pronunciation (as written) correct? Is there any difference between British and American pronunciations?
1 Answer
Nice catch! I do believe that pronunciation is incorrect. Dictionary.com has it as:
kənˈstɪtʃuənt
The difference between the British and American pronunciations is in the transition between the second and third syllables: the British is a crisper "stit-yu" whereas the American is a softer "sti-chu".
-
There is also a difference in the pronunciation of the letter O. American pronunciation of it has a kind of long, rising sound like "aa" and British pronunciation of it has a kind of O sound which does not exist in American and Canadian English.– TristanAug 21, 2013 at 22:45
-
1@Tristan: But unless you are an extremely fastidious speaker who pronounces all your vowels extremely carefully, this 'o' is normally pronounced as schwa (/ə/) in both British and American speech. Aug 22, 2013 at 2:19
-
@Tristan I'm American, and I pronounce the first vowel in constituent the same way I do the first in cunning. I'm curious about this British O that you referenced. Do you happen to know where I could find an audio file to listen to it, so I understand what you mean? Aug 22, 2013 at 2:32
-
1@Tristan Just as there are many types of British accents, there are many types of American accents. Roughly 60% of the U.S. population pronounces two different vowels in hot and dog; these vowels are /ɑ/ and /ɔ/. For more information, please see the low back merger on Wikipedia.– user230Aug 22, 2013 at 16:11
-
1Those vowel sounds that you mentioned are noticeably different from the O sound that I mentioned.– TristanAug 22, 2013 at 22:49
kənˈstʃuənt
is kind of fun to say :-) (I wonder if anyone would be able to figure out what a constuent was if you said it to them...)