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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Economy, economic, ecosystem...

0 Hi,02br
00I'd like to know how I should pronounce words beginning with 01u01b01i00eco02i02b02u00 (in American English of course). My dictionaries confuse me, and the Merriam Webster online conuses me even more (they all show different ways to pronounce those words, and often the pronounce in the audio files is different from the phonetic transcriptions). It seems there are a lot of ways to pronounce them...02br
02br
00The problem is the sound of 01u01b01i00e02i02b02u00 in eco-words like:02br
02br
01i00Economy, Economic, Economics, Economist, Economical, Ecology, Ecosystem, Ecologist, Ecoterrorism, Ecological, etc.02i02br
02br
00The possible sounds are e as in bet, i as in bit, ee as in beet. How am I supposed to pronounce those words? I'm sure there is more than one way to pronounce them, but I'm not sure about how common certain ways are.02br
02br
00Thank you.0-
  

Top answer

02br 02br 00Well, here's how I pronounce them right now. 02br 02br 00[ i ] (as in "beet")02br 00Ecology [ i ]02br 00Ecosystem [ i ]02br 00Ecologist [ i ]02br 00Ecoterrorism [ i ]02br 00---------------------------02br 00[ E ] (as in "end")02br 00Ecological [ E ]02br 00Economics [ E ]02br 00---------------------------02br 00[ i ] or [ E ]02br 00Economic [ i ] or [ E ]02br 00Economical [ i ] or [ E ]02br 00---------------------------02br 00[ i ] or [ @ ] (indistinct)02br 00Ecomomy [ i ] or [ @ ]0-

— Marvin A.

  • 02br 02br 00Well, here's how I pronounce them right now.
  • 02br 02br 00[ i ] (as in "beet")02br 00Ecology [ i ]02br 00Ecosystem [ i ]02br 00Ecologist [ i ]02br 00Ecoterrorism [ i ]02br 00---------------------------02br 00[ E ] (as in "end")02br 00Ecological [ E ]02br 00Economics [ E ]02br 00---------------------------02br 00[ i ] or [ E ]02br 00Economic [ i ] or [ E ]02br 00Economical [ i ] or [ E ]02br 00---------------------------02br 00[ i ] or [ @ ] (indistinct)02br 00Ecomomy [ i ] or [ @ ]0-
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10 Answers
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0Economy, Economic, Economics, Economist, Economical, Ecology, Ecosystem, Ecologist, Ecoterrorism, Ecological, etc.02br
02br
00Well, here's how I pronounce them right now. Maybe in a few hours I'll say them differently.02br
02br
00[ i ] (as in "beet")02br
00Ecology [ i ]02br
00Ecosystem [ i ]02br
00Ecologist [ i ]02b
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0 Well, after reading my post, I realize that "Ecological" and "Economics" sound just fine with [ i ] as well, so it looks like you can just use [ i ] for every word that begins with eco: so just say [ iko ] for all of them. Just keep in mind that sometimes other people might say some of the others with [ E ] . 0-
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0 Thanks Marvin. 02br
02br
00It was me who posted as Anonymous, I forgot to login. It would be nice if users were warned before posting anonymously, for example with a notice like 01i00"You are about to post anonymously, anonymous posts are checked by a moderator before they can appear in the thread. Do you want to continue? --- POST / BACK"02br
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0 I'm not sure about how common certain ways are.02br
02br
00 Me neither. I had a discussion with a friend once. 01u00All evening long02u00 I used short 01b00e02b00 (01i00bet02i00) and he used long 01b00e02b00 (01i00bee02i00) as the pronunciation for the first
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0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10I had a discussion with a friend once. 11u10All evening long12u10 I used short 11b10e12b10 (11i10bet12i10) and he used long 11b10e12b10 (11i10bee12i10) as the pronunciation for the first letter of 1
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0Don't be confused. A tense [ i ] is always correct for all of them. So, if you use [ i ] for all of them you'll always be correct. Just be aware that some people use a lax [ E ] instead or even [ @ ] for some of them.0-
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0These are difficult words for speakers of latin languages, but I think the main concern is not whether you say /i/ or /e/. Rather, it is important to stress the syllables correctly:02br
02br
00eCOnomy, ecoNOmic, ecoNOmics, eCOnomist, ecoNOmical, eCOlogy, ECO-system, eCOlogist, ECO-terrorism, ecoLOgical02br
02br
00There is also a diphtong in ec01font
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0>> There is also a diphtong in ecosystem and ecoterrorism which I find worth mentioning. 02<<
02br
00Not in my dialect. I pronounce "o" as a monophthongized [ o ] rather than [ oU ] or [ @U ].0-
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0Hi Anon,02br
02br
00You asked:01blockquote
00How am I supposed to pronounce those words?12blockquote
10Words that are pronounced with 'e' as in 'bet':02br
02br
00economic, economics, economical, ecology, ecosystem, ecologist, ecoterrorism, ecological02br
02br
00Words that are pronounced with 'i' a
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Hi all, I thought I would respond and give my input, I was born and raised in London, Wimbledon, United Kingdom where as a youngster I attended both government school (State schooling) and Public school (Private schooling).

My "Quarm" is the way that people pronounce the words "Economy" or "Economic" as I have learned to believe that there is a specific difference when speaking to distin
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