British speakers: pronunciation of "primarily"

Tom   Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:03 am GMT
Hi,

I have a quick question for Britons. When you pronounce "primarily", do you stress the first or the second syllable?

Thanks.
pri   Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:05 pm GMT
Either one; pri-mare-uh-lih
Damian in Herts.   Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:11 pm GMT
The first syllable, always. PRY-mur-(u)ll-ee is about the closest phonetic representation of the average British RP pronunciation of this word I can put into print without using the formal methods used by the "experts" in here.

The stress is always on the first syllable over here, whatever local UK accent we use. In American English I think the stress is on the seond syllable.

I know this is the case with proper names like Bernard and Gerard - here we always stress the first syllable.

Take my fellow Scot - Gerard Butler - for instance. According to him he's been over in America "for far too long" - referring to the effect it's having on his Scottish accent....he has American homes in Hollywood and New York and a UK home in Hampstead, here in London, where he happens to be at the present time for the forseeable future apparebtly.

He comes from Glasgow, where his entire family lives, and he says that each time he lands back in the UK from America he heads for the nearest Starbucks asap and asks for a coffee but this time always in his very thickest, most emphatically and gutturally Glasgow Scottish accent...even if its at Heathrow airport, something he just could not do back in America because he just wouldn't be understood on most occasions.

What bugs him most about being in America is the way the Americans pronounce his name - Gerard...a bit like the "primarily" thing.

Once back home on British soil he loves to be called by his proper name Gerard again because here everybody calls him exactly as it's pronounced anywhere in the UK ......GERR-udd (always this way in Scotland) or often, but not always, in England: "GERR-ahd" - emphasis always on the first syllable in Britain..never, ever as in America....on the last syllable which drove Gerard up the wall big time...."Gerr-ARRRRD".

He couldn't stand being addressed in the American way, so over there he compromised and insisted that they all call him Gerry, which nobody ever does over here as there is no need for it here.

The same applies to blokes called Bernard I suppose......Bernie in the US, and Bernard over here, but it's up to the bearer of the name I reckon either way...I imagine most Bernards would prefer Bernie wherever thay are, and a good many British Gerards like to be called Gerry anyway, so it's all a wee bit academic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIALzj8cwKA&feature=fvw
Guest   Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:35 pm GMT
Does that mean you pronounce the name "Gerard" the same as "Jared"?
AJC   Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:00 pm GMT
Probably the first rather than the second but it could be either way. If the first was stressed, the second syllable would be elided rather than the third as Damian has it: ["prEimr1li]
Uriel   Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:01 pm GMT
<<In American English I think the stress is on the seond syllable. >>

Yup. Pry-MARE-il-lee.
Tom   Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:50 pm GMT
I heard Richard Hammond of Top Gear pronounce it with the stress on the second syllable and I was curious how frequent this pronunciation is. I guess it's not that frequent, though I would like to get some more replies from Britons (preferably those who speak something close to RP).
Guest from UK   Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:00 pm GMT
Stress on 2nd syllable: very common in RP. Probably more common than on the first syllable.
Damian London E14   Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:33 am GMT
The pronunciation of the word "primarily" in the American way in the UK (stressing second instead of first syllable) isn't all that uncommon really, simply for the reason that it's actually easier to voice that way when you come to think of it....it seems to take less effort somehow, but even so many English English RP speakers do pronounce it the British way, probably because they're not overkeen on the American way for reasons best known to themselves.

I don't hear the word mentioned all that much anyway, either in the UK media or in ordinary day to day conversations, but I have heard the two following guys use it and both used the American way of pronunciation.

Martin Lewis - aka Mr Moneyman, often appearing on early morning GMTV, offering advice to people on money management. "Primarily" - he used the American way when I heard him. He is English English RP but with a North of England type accent for the most part.

Similary Evan Davis, the BBC TV expert of economic matters generally....again he used the American pronunciation. He is from Ashtead, Surrey, so Southern England EERP.

Sadly neither used the word in the YT clips below, from which you can determine their English accents, basically RP I reckon.

Probably some British people use the American pronunciation of some words for different reasons, possibly because it's actually easier to do so, as with "primarily" as I said, but another word which a fair number of Britons say the American way is "harrass" - again the second syllable is stressed, instead of the first. If there is one thing which one Briton may irrirate another is the pronunciation of a word like "harrass".

Martin Lewis, aka Mr Money Man - often appearing on early morning GMTV. He does tend to use the American pronunciation of "primarily".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZBkCkPY58

Evan Davis, economist often reporting on BBC TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DikUNwTdT8k

If Richard Hammond, of Top Gear (RP speaker currently living on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border in England) pronounces the word "primarily" the American way I doubt very much that it's because he is a greater admirer of America and the Americans for - just like his fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson - he has clearly indicated many times on Top Gear that he is no such thing. Actually Clarkson often seems to be a male version of Anne Robinson in his attitude to all things American, often unjustifiably in my opinion, but there you go. My guess is that too many Americans have told them just what they think of them!

In the case of Anne Robinson the Americans dissed her show because she was "too rude" and upset too many Americans. Well, she's exacty the same to all her British contestants, but apparently we Brits adopt a different attitude towards being publicly "insulted and humilated", regarding it as all tongue in cheek, something Americans generally find diffucult, if not impossible, to come to terms with! I've never yet seen a British contestant burst into tears after beeing summarily and sharply dismissed as the "weakest link"!
Tom   Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:18 pm GMT
Remember Hammond has a soft spot for old American cars (he has a Dodge Challenger). Clarkson once called him a "secret American".

Thanks for pointing out the dual pronunciation of "harass" in Britain. I wasn't even aware the word could be pronounced with the first syllable stressed.

By the way, here's what British learner's dictionaries say about "primarily":

Cambridge - priMARily
Oxford - priMARily, also PRImarily
Collins - transcription says PRImarily, but (British) speaker says priMARily :)
Longman - PRImarily

Cambridge Pronouncing Dictionary - priMARily (listed first), PRImarily
Jasper   Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:54 pm GMT
Damian, the trouble is that in the UK, names aren't pronounced the same way they're spelt. English as a rule is probably the least phonetic language on the face of the Earth, but in the UK the situation is particularly bad.

Continuing on in this vein of thought, can you imagine an American's consternation when he first sees "Worcestershire sauce" in print? So an American seeing "Gerard" or "Bernard" of course is going to pronounce it the way its spelt, unless he knows otherwise. I myself never knew that Gerard was pronounced "Gerr-ud" until you just now told us. And we all know about Ralph Fiennes who pronounces his name utterly unintuitive "Rafe".

Countless other examples of the UK's oddities in spelling could be given.
@Damian   Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:58 pm GMT
PriMARily isn't 'the American way' of pronouncing 'primarily'. It's one of the English ways.
Damian London SW15   Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:51 pm GMT
@Damian:

Thanks for that! There are many English ways, @Damian - that's what's so perplexing about the way this Language of ours is treated here.

Thanks also to Tom for not actually pulling me up over my spelling of "harass" - amazingly I did it twice! Such tact! Looking at it now it really does hit you right in the eye as obviously wrong! Actually "harass" is one of the most commonly mis-spelled words, in the UK at least, after such words as "separate" "receipt" "accommodation" and "embarrass" - this one is quite odd when you consider "harass". Incredibly many people spell "tomorrow" incorrectly - they insist in adding an extra "m" for some reason.

Jasper - our dearly loved close neighbours the French have always called this island "L'Albion Perfide!" Who could possibly disagree with them? Much of what you see over here isn't quite the way it seems, be it people's surnames or the placenames on the signposts along our roads, and that applies to Scotland as well as England. Wales of course is a law unto itself in this respect.....nothing at all there is anything like it seems on all their signposts.

Goodnight.
Uriel   Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:47 am GMT
<<but another word which a fair number of Britons say the American way is "harrass" - again the second syllable is stressed, instead of the first. If there is one thing which one Briton may irrirate another is the pronunciation of a word like "harrass". >>

<<Thanks for pointing out the dual pronunciation of "harass" in Britain. I wasn't even aware the word could be pronounced with the first syllable stressed. >>



Harass is actually pronounced both ways in the US -- ha-RASS or HARE-us. I prefer the first myself, but the second is not uncommon at all. I did not know that one was considered more "American" than the other. (The other is certainly never considered "British".)

It is simply like a number of other words that have two ways they can be pronounced, such as finance, insurance, romance, either, and neither.
Damian London NW8   Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:14 am GMT
***Damian, the trouble is that in the UK, names aren't pronounced the same way they're spelt***

How right you are, Jasper. Unless you are local to any given area of the UK, or familar with certain surnames, you haven't a cat in hell's chance of pronouncing them correctly and in the accepted way.

The pronunciation of some UK places names bears very little resemblance to the way they are spelled - or spelt if you prefer - some quite amazingly so (and I include both Scotland and England here - Wales is a different situation altogether here in most cases but even there some Anglo Saxon names fall into the same category).

For instance these UK placenames are such that you either have to be local to the area in order to get the pronunciation right, or know already how to do so.

Cholmondeley (Eng)
Happisburgh (Eng)
Glamis (Scot)
Culzean (Scot)
Trottiscliffe (Eng)
Costessey (Eng)
Meopham (Eng)
Moniaive (Scot)
Fowey (Eng)
Mousehole (Eng)*

*Don't ever pronounce this name the way it looks unless you really want to <annoy> the Cornish locals, not that they'd get all wound up about it anyway - they've heard it all before loads of times. If you're in one of the pubs in Mousehole chatting with the locals then any such mis-pronunciation by an emmet** results in them standing the next round at the bar.

**Emmet - the word the Cornish use to refer to anybody who is not a native of Cornwall.

Most surnames which are pronounced nothing like the way they are spelled (spelt) are mostly from England - and seem to be those connected with the so called "upper classes of society", or the aristocracy. You'd think it was some kind of honour to possess such a name - such as Featherstonehaugh (no resemblance at all to its pronunciation which is basically just Fanshaw! Only the English of a certain class could concoct such a thing. Cholmondeley is another, a surname as well as a placename.....it's pronounced as Chumley. There are others but I haven't the time or inclination to look them up right now.

The English....don't you just love them for being so irritatingly contrary? I could even marry one someday, I think - my cousin did and he still seems happy enough and living in England as well.