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 English Dictionary (the source of all the first usage dates) it was spelled enunciate in 1623.
The source for all of them is the Latin nuntiare, but when certain forms came through French, an -o- was added.
Word Parts Dictionary, 3rd edition
Word Parts Dictionary, Kindle edition
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