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AN _OUNCE OF PREVUNCIATION

                                            [The Annunciation by Fra Angelico, 1450] A caller asked about the difference between pronunciation and enunciation. Pronunciation refers to the proper utterance of a word. This involves the placement of stress, or accent, in multisyllabic words, and the value given to the consonants and vowels. Misplace the accent, or give the wrong value to a vowel or consonant, and you have mispronounced the word.   Enunciation refers to the clarity of the speaker. Thus, his or her pronunciation might be perfect, but if he or she mumbles or slurs, I may not understand what is being said.   No one asked, but notice that the verb form of these words contains the letter -o-, which is dropped in the noun form:   Announce/annunciation     1429/1389 Denounce/denunciation     1384/1548 Enounce /enunciation         1805/1551      Pronounce/pronunciation  1384/1439 Renounce/renunciation      1393/1399   The oddball in that list is enounce. According to the Oxford

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