Veterinary

This is a word whose pronunciation gives trouble, not least because it is pronounced in at least three ways in British RP. The problem is that it has too many short syllables to be easy to say.

Probably the commonest pronunciation in academic circles is 'VET-nry', in which the solution is simply not to realise the second syllable, and 'swallow' much of the rest of the word after the stressed syllable 've-'. In the wider world, the commonest - the one that LPD records first - is 'VET-er-in-er-y' (in rather a rushed way), IPA: /ˈvɛt ə^r ən ər ɪ/. The third pronunciation is half way between these two: 'VET-rin-ry', /ˈvɛt ɪ(or ə)n ər ɪ/.

There is another pronunciation, less traditional, and probably commoner outside the UK than in it, where the stress (or at least a secondary stress) falls on the fourth syllable: 'vet-er-in-EH-ry', /vɛt ər ɪ(or ə)n ˈər ɪ/, or 'VET-er-in-EH-ry', /ˈvɛt ər ɪ(or ə)n ˌər ɪ/.

Veterinary can be used both as an adjective (e.g. 'veterinary surgeon', ~ animal doctor; 'veterinary medicine', the subject the veterinary surgeon knows - and, of course, an academic discipline) and as a noun. A veterinary is a veterinary surgeon. The pronunciation gives us so much trouble that most people in Britain call such a person by the simple abbreviation 'a vet'.

Note the spelling: veterinary is one of the 117 mis-spellings listed as 'Common difficulties' in the section on 'Spelling' within 'Writing' in UEfAP.