In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go over the pronunciation of
the word 'university'.
This week's Word of the Week is 'university'. 'University' is a five-syllable word with
secondary stress on the first syllable, and primary stress on the third syllable. U-ni-ver-si-ty.
University. It begins with the 'ju' diphthong, uni-, uni-. Then we have the N consonant sound
and the schwa in the second syllable, which is unstressed. So, the tongue tip will go
to the roof of the mouth for the N, uni-, uni-. Then we have the stressed syllable -ver-.
It begins with the V consonant sound, so the bottom lip will come and make contact with
the bottom of the top front teeth, vv, vv. Univer-. The vowel sound is the UR as in HER
vowel, -ver-, -ver-, so you don't need much jaw drop for that. The tongue will pull back,
and make contact here with the roof of the mouth, or the insides of the teeth. Univer-sity.
Then we have two unstressed syllables that will be flat, lower in pitch and volume, -sity,
sity. I want to point out, we have a T here between two vowel sounds. That means it's
going to be a flap, not a True T, -sity, -sity, -sity. University. University.
He teaches at New York University.
That's it, your Word of the Week. Try it out yourself. Make up a sentence with the
word, record it, and post it as a video response to this video on YouTube. I can't wait to
watch it.
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.