[General] Pronunciation of "Extraordinary"?

[Williamyh]

Dear all,

Most people would pronounce Extraordinary as [FONT=&quot]BrE [FONT=&quot]/ [/FONT]ɪkˈstrɔːdnri [FONT=&quot]/ [/FONT][/FONT]or[FONT=&quot] NAmE [FONT=&quot]/[/FONT]ɪkˈstrɔːrdəneri [FONT=&quot]/, [/FONT][/FONT]recently I found an oxford dictionary for iPod, says it can be pronounced as /ˌekstrəˈɔːdɪnri/, I want to consult you guys, is it a correct pronunciation or any native speaker would pronounce /ˌekstrəˈɔːdɪnri/....please advise.

W

 

[raindoctor]

William, I thought you were living in Vietnam; when did you move to India?

In AmE, you hear secondary stress on -ary; thanks to historical r neutralization, -ary becomes [eri]. Based on this and alternate stressing rule, you can find the other stressed location: /ɪkˈstroɚdəˌneri/ (note the stress on the second syllable left of the secondary stressed syllable. Also, notice the smoothing phenomenon: getting rid of the vowel /a/, and keeping /o/.

/ˌekstrəˈɔːdɪnri/ is possible, but it could be a marked usage in BrE. That's not part of AmE.