Pronunciation of ‘schizophrenia’ in English

by Jakub Marian

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A German heart will skip a beat when seeing this word; not just because schizophrenia was originally described and researched by German scientists, but also because its pronunciation resembles to a certain degree the original German one.

It is one of the very few English words containing the “ts” sound where “t” and “s” are pronounced almost simultaneously (as ‘zz’ in in pizza, for example). It can be pronounced either as /ˌskɪtsəˈfriːniə/ (skits-ə-free-nee-ə) or as /ˌskɪtsəˈfrɛniə/ (skits-ə-fren-iə).

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