Why is "Python" pronounced differently than "Pyramid"? Is there a logic behind why the "PY" is pronounced differently in both?
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1It's py vs. pyr.– HippoSawrUsCommented Dec 1, 2023 at 19:37
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There is no logic in the English language, although there might be reasons from etymology. Teaching material presents rules but they are only guidelines.– Weather VaneCommented Dec 1, 2023 at 20:14
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This is a valid question. It's stupid to downvote it just because.– OMACommented Nov 18 at 5:05
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1 Answer
When pronounced as a vowel letter, "Y" is generally equivalent to "I" and has the same two main pronunciations: "short i", the vowel found in the word "KIT", transcribed in IPA as /ɪ/, and "long i", the diphthong found in the word "PRICE", transcribed in IPA as /aɪ/.
The pronunciation of python and pyramid is consistent with the following tendencies for vowel pronunciation in words derived from Latin or Greek:
a vowel letter tends to take its "long" pronunciation when stressed and followed by a single written consonant and a single unstressed syllable. Python is followed by "th" (for the sake of this rule, the digraph "th" counts as a single consonant) and there is only one unstressed syllable after the stressed syllable.
a vowel letter tends to take its "short" pronunciation when stressed and followed by more than one syllable. Pyramid has two unstressed syllables after the stressed syllable.
There are many exceptions to these tendencies, so they are not rules.
In the case of pyramid, the following /r/ sound can modify the quality of the preceding vowel, but that doesn't substantially affect the logic of how the pronunciation relates to the spelling.
