Wednesday, May 23, 2012

How to pronounce particularly, necessarily

Most dictionaries list citation form pronunciations, which are useless since many words are not emphasized in speech.

The word 'particularly' contains two r's. So, expect r dissimilation even when emphasized.
The second point is about the combination r and l. In English, /rl/ or /lr/ constant cluster doesn't exist. Even though you see words like world, girl, Charles, Charleston, Burlingame, Carl, curl, darling, etc, their phonetic realization is like "bunched r + velarized l". You don't hear them as consonants. You usually hear a vowel between them.

Sometimes, you end up not pronouncing r in that combination. Charleston > Chalston; Charles > Chalz

particularly > paticularly (r dissimilation) > pa'ticul(ar)lee (cf. above) > pa-ticulee >pa-'tikya-lee (present of yod) > pa-tiklee ( no yod)

necessary > 'nece,ssary
necessarily > ,nece'ssarily > ne'ssarily  (call it /s/ dissimilation)


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