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I am from Germany and I am having a question regarding the pronunciation of AmE and BrE.

I have a book and the text there says that there is a two syllable-pronunciation in BrE R.P. of the word secretary [sektrɪ] and in rapid BrE speech whereas in AmE it is pronounced [ˈsɛkrəˌtɛrɪ]

In the lecture we learned that 'in the UK' secretary consists out of three syllables (but it is not R.P. meant but standard BrE???) since the book says two.

other words that can be included are dictionary and necessary Thanks,

tima
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  • American variants: ['sɛkrəˌtɛri], ['sɛkəˌtɛri] (4 syll); ['sɛktɛri], ['sɛkətri] (3 syll); ['sɛktri] (2 syll). – John Lawler Jun 24 '14 at 18:50
  • In the UK, I frequently hear people use both the secretary and secretry pronunciations. – Tristan r Jun 24 '14 at 18:51
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    @Tristanr It is more RP to say secretry. But even that to my mind amounts to three syllables. – WS2 Jun 24 '14 at 19:01
  • WS2, it is but, a lot of people in this part of the world don't speak RP. – Tristan r Jun 24 '14 at 19:03
  • i did not know that there are as many variations :) However I would like to which form you use (in your country)? I really would like to compare it :) 3 or 4 syllables (since only 2 per cent of the British population speak RP as far as I know) – tima Jun 24 '14 at 19:06
  • A better example of this UK/US difference is military. This is at most 3 syllables in the UK and usually 4 in the US. These are examples of the rule that the second-to-last syllable of most words ending with -ary has a secondary accent in the US, and no accent in the UK. – Peter Shor Jun 24 '14 at 19:08
  • @PeterShor you mean that there is a secondary stress in AmE words that are polysyllabic? – tima Jun 24 '14 at 19:15
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    @tima: No, that's not what I mean. I believe that for most words that are polysyllabic, AmE and BrE agree on whether and where there is secondary stress. Just not for most ending with -ary or -ory, e.g. laboratory, military, corollary, extraordinary, circulatory, ancillary, secretary, ... – Peter Shor Jun 24 '14 at 19:17
  • Don't forget "medicine" – phoog Sep 28 '14 at 08:40

2 Answers2

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I'm in Singapore, and some of our pronunciation is based on BrE pronunciation.

It's normally three syllables /ˈsekrətri/, but I've heard the four-syllable version /ˈsekrətəri/ as well as the two-syllable version /ˈsektri/. There's obviously variation within BrE accents. In general, there is less reduction in Northern English accents.

The pronunciation /ˈsekrəˌtɛːri/ is largely AmE.

Peter
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In a non-searchable and potentially ephemeral comment to the original posting, Professor Lawler kindly presented the following answer:

American variants:

  • Four syllables:       [ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri], [ˈsɛkəˌtɛri]
  • Three syllables:     [ˈsɛktɛri],        [ˈsɛkətri]
  • Two syllables:        [ˈsɛktri]

I’ve marked this posting Community Wiki because it is John’s answer not my own, and so I deserve no reputation from it.

tchrist
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