Pronouncing -ion endings: “Version”

The other day my client, who is a software engineer, asked me about pronunciation of the term “version control”. He said that when he used this word in meetings he was often asked to repeat himself. He suspected he wasn’t saying it correctly and assumed his clients were being polite by not correcting him. I asked him to say the word for me and it sounded like this:

/vuhr zee yuhn kahn trohl/

Many of my clients have some initial difficulty with -ion endings and the consonants that come right before them. The -ion ending is always pronounced as schwa + /N/. Schwa is a neutral, central vowel pronounced with a relaxed tongue and jaw. In the word “version”, the “s” here is pronounced as /ZH/, the same consonant in the middle of the word “pleasure”. Here is the transcription:

/VUHR zhuhn kuhn TROHL/

Also notice that the word “control” is pronounced with an unstressed schwa in the first syllable rather than a distinct vowel associated with the “co” spelling. See the lesson on schwa for a review.

For the rhythm of this word, primary stress is on the first syllable of “version”, indicated with bolding, and there is secondary stress on the second syllable of “control”, indicated with capitalization.

For other examples of the -ion ending, consider this list:

action: /AEK shuhn/

option /AHP shuhn/

notion /NOH shuhn/

fusion /FYUU zhuhn/

tension /TEHN shuhn/

coercion /ko WUHR zhuhn/

fixation /fihk SAY shuhn/

As we can see from this list, words with an -ion ending with a final consonant “t”, the /T/ is transformed into a /SH/ sound. In other words that end in “s” or “c”, they are most often transformed into /ZH/, although there are some exceptions such as “tension”.

You may also notice that all of these words follow the same stress pattern. In all words ending with -ion, primary word stress falls on the syllable just before the -ion suffix. Consider this example:

Complicate: /KAHM plih kayt/

In this word the primary stress falls on the first syllable. Look what happens when we add an -ion suffix:

Complication: /kahm plih KAY shuhn/

When we add an -ion suffix, the primary stress is pulled to the syllable just before. This is a general rhythm rule that you can use to memorize the stress pattern of all words ending with -ion.

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Written by Sarah Sherer, PhD

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