Recognising pronunciation patterns in English

Learning becomes exciting when it comes with a discovery of some underlying patterns...

Some people are wont to pronounce some English words just the way they perceive them as correct; but this always results in incorrect pronunciation. English pronunciation might be tricky, especially when we do not know why there has to be a slight change here and there, which some people consider absolutely pedantic. Lol. But language is what it is: beautiful in its own unique way.

However, there are patterns in English pronunciation and recognizing these patterns can catalyze you into fine, correct articulation of many words. Patterns exist everywhere, and even in many languages of the world. And till date, they are still highly useful in making sense of a large body of things we wouldn’t have known so easily.

Today, I am writing about a pattern I have observed in some words below:

resign/resignation

compile/compilation

design/designation

deprive/deprivation

define/definition

derive/derivation etc.

This is the pattern:

While we have /aɪ/ in resign /rɪˈzaɪn/, it is pronounced /ɪ/ in resignation/rɛzɪɡˈneɪʃ(ə)n/. You must pay attention to the stress placement and the consonant /z/, too. There is a stress shift from the second syllable in reSIGN to the third syllable in resigNAtion.

A quick note: words that end in -ion give us the stress on the penultimate (syllable before the last) syllable hence the stress shift.

The same pattern is evident in compile /kəmˈpaɪl/ and compilation /kɒmpɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/; design /dɪˈzaɪn/ and designation /dɛzɪɡˈneɪʃ(ə)n/; deprive /dɪˈpraɪv/ and deprivation /dɛprɪˈveɪʃ(ə)n/ ; define /dɪˈfaɪn/ and definition /dɛfɪˈnɪʃ(ə)n/ ; derive /dɪˈraɪv/ and derivation /dɛrɪˈveɪʃ(ə)n/ etc.

There is also a slight change in nature of the vowels that begin the first syllables as in design/designation, derive/derivation, and many words you can see above.

Many other words in this category, such as incline/inclination, divine/divination, decline/declination, will invariably be pronounced this way.

It is important you practice them for some time and use them correctly in your conversations with people. After all, if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

With love and everything English,

Francis