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Recently, while watching Walking Dead, I heard "sufficient" pronounced differently from what I have learned twice. I learned it with a "sh" but they pronounced it like the original "suffice". Checking multiple online dictionaries indicate the way I've learned it is correct. Where does the different pronunciation come from? Is it a dialect?

EDIT

After trying to find the part again I can't say for sure anymore that it was Walking Dead (see comments). But I definitely heard it twice in something I watched recently and as far as I remember I only watched US productions.

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  • Which character in what episode and season? I'm curious. (And I might overlooked it when I watched it.) If it's the latest season, I might still have it on my PVR. :-) – Damkerng T. Jan 21 '17 at 12:41
  • @DamkerngT. I'm not a 100% sure anymore. It was definitely late season 6 or early season 7. As I said I heard it twice and I think from two different characters. One of them could have been Abraham. I'll see if I can find the exact part later. – André Stannek Jan 21 '17 at 12:47
  • I always thought that was either literal pronunciation or snobbish language. – user3169 Jan 21 '17 at 18:19
  • I haven't seen the show, but it sounds like "suffi-see-ent" is just fancy pronunciation. Sounds like something a posh british person would say on american television so that the audience knows that they are a snob. Also check out this site if you haven't found it already: forvo.com/word/sufficient/#en - Pronunciations from around the world – Joe Pinsonault Jan 21 '17 at 20:25
  • @DamkerngT. Can't seem to find it. Even found the scripts online and they don't contain the word. Might be my brain fooling me and it wasn't Walking Dead. But I'm still certain I heard it twice in something I watched recently. – André Stannek Jan 22 '17 at 12:48
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Likely just an accent, American English can deviate substantially from English, see potayto and potarto.

In English, the "sh" is common, I pronounce it suff-ish-ent

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I pronounce it as "suffi-shi-ent"; 'shi' as in ship.

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