23. Pronunciation of compound words in English You may be disappointed by this SECTION because there are no definitive answers.
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al.chemy | alchemy |
chemi.stry | chemistry |
al.gebra | algebra |
alti.tude | altitude |
alti.meter | altimeter |
centi.meter | centimeter |
cumulo.nimbus | cumulonimbus |
milli.meter | millimeter |
geo.metry | geometry |
geo.thermal | geothermal |
kilo.meter | kilometer |
kilo.gram | kilogram |
poly.syllable | polysyllable |
thermo.meter | thermometer |
testo.sterone | testosterone |
tele.phone | telephone |
tele.scope | telescope |
tele.scopy | telescopy |
tele.scopic | telescopic |
arrheno.toky | * |
deutero.toky | * |
thely.toky | * |
* Not common enough for a consensus to have been reached.
The column headed "The way it is" shows the way that most Americans pronounce the word. Clearly, "the rule" works poorly with compound words that have roots in other languages, or at least in classical languages (most of these words) and Arabic (alchemy and algebra).
But did you notice something else about the words in column B? All have at least three syllables, and there is a strong tendency to place the stress on the antepenultimate syllable, and thus to forget about the etymology (origin and meaning). The same occurs in Spanish where the word telephone, which has three syllables in English, has four in Spanish (telefono) and the stress is on the antepenultimate. English does not require the stress in polysyllabic words to be on the antepenultimate (consider the words polysyllabic, and caterpillar where it is not), so it makes more sense to stress the word according to its etymology as in column A. Unfortunately, logic is not a virtue of English pronunciation.
The words discussed here are English, and the rules (such as they are) of English spelling, grammar, and pronunciation apply. In contrast, scientific names of species, genera, and higher categories are considered to be Latin, so rules of Latin spelling, grammar, and pronunciation apply to them (SECTION 10).