synapse

[Boris Tatarenko]

Today I've learned a new word "synapse".
How do you pronunce this word in North America (You know, I learn American pronunciation). I found five different ways to pronounce this word. :-(

 

[5jj]

The Longman and Cambridge pronunciation dictionaries both give /ˈsɪnæps/ as the most common pronunciation in the USA. Cambridge gives /sɪnˈæps/ and Longman /sənˈæps/ as the less common pronunciation. This difference is not very significan, as the difference between /ə/ and unstressed /ɪ/ can be very slight.

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

Thanks.
As I understood in AmE we pronuonce this word as /ˈsɪ.næps/ but in BrE as /ˈsaɪ.næps/. Am I right?

I don't want to bother you, but what does " ' " mean before the "s"?

 

[Raymott]

Thanks.
As I understood in AmE we pronuonce this word as /ˈsɪ.næps/ but in BrE as /ˈsaɪ.næps/. Am I right?

I don't want to bother you, but what does " ' " mean before the "s"?

That means the primary stress comes on 'syn'. In post #2, the Longman entry shows the primary stress on 'æps', which it would have to be if the first syllable vowel is a schwa.
See the very bottom of this page, and you'll see the mark for a secondary stress and its usage:
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/help/faq_pron_ipa.htm

I pronounce synapse as /ˈsaɪ.næps/, which is the BrE version, as you say. And I say, /saɪ.'næptik/.
Also, you might see an apostrophe for the primary stress, and a comma for the secondary stress - they are just easy keyboard variants for the real symbols.