Dictionary.com lists two pronunciations for 'advertisement':

Ad-ver-tahyz-muhnt, ad-vur-tis-muhnt

And I can't find whether (or which) one is american, or british or canadian

Anyone know?

Thx!

The former is the North American way and the latter is the British way.

Thank you for your response. That helps, but it's still fuzzy... typically the canadian way is the british way, but as we're north american, does that mean that it's 'officially' ambiguous, either / or?

Being canadian and having lived in the UK for 4 months I can offer that we pronounce most if not all words the "american" way.

Thanks again! I guess that brings me to realize that although we often spell like the brits, we often talk like the yanks.

Exactly! I favour the flavour and colour of our English. :D

Since I'm new to this whole site, can you tell me if there's a way to print out a complete thread in a succinct way?

At the top of the thread click on "Question Tools" and select "Show Printable version".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by greg49

dictionary.com lists two pronunciations for 'advertisement':

ad-ver-tahyz-muhnt, ad-vur-tis-muhnt

and I can't find whether (or which) one is american, or british or canadian

anyone know?

Thx!

---

UK definitely ad-vurt-is-munt.

Thank you!

Ad-VURR-tiss-mint was the standard way to pronounce it in America (I don't know about Canada) till the last twenty or thirty years. Nowadays, AD-vur-TIZE-mint, with the main accent on the third syllable, seems to be most common. The old way is still standard in Great Britain. Why the pronunciation shifted in America is a matter of some discussion. One obvious explanation is to conform with the accentuation of 'advertising,' a word more commonly heard. Regardless, this new pronunciation is almost never heard in American movies or TV prior to 1970.