Fecundated - Topic

Question:
Scott Brick has uttered many uncommon words – "rapine," "retributive" and "circumvallated" among them – on his way to becoming an invisible star in a growing business: audio books. In has five-year career, the 38-year-old has narrated about 200 books.

Last month, Mr. Brick was reading a portion of "Cloud Atlas," a densely worded novel by David Mitchell. Mr. Brick was stopping frequently during the course of this session to figure out some challenging pronunciations. When he came to "fecundated" (it means made fruitful or productive), he sat puzzling at the sheet of paper in front of him. Should the accent be on the first or second syllable? "I think it's safe to say I've never spoken this word aloud before," he said. He and the director agreed to stress all syllables equally.

Is this really so difficult? Without looking at the dictionary, which syllable would you stress? (Or if more than one, which would be primary?)

Choices:
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
none; all equal

Posts: 2666 | Location: Chicago, IL USA

posted

I thought it meant that one dated a traditional Catholic or Mormon!

I slightly emphasize the first syllable, but so slightly that I suspect most people would her them all as equal.

Kalleh

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To me, it's one of those words that sounds dirty.

Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USA

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tinman

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I would accent the first and third syllables nearly equally, but with a slightly greater accent on the third. Now, how does it differ from fecund? I would look it up, but I've been forbidden to do so.

Tinman

Posts: 2879 | Location: Shoreline, WA, USA

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quote:
Originally posted by Kalleh:
To me, it's one of those words that sounds dirty.

But you of all people know well enough to wash first!

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