I recently listened to an audio book in which the narrator had pronounced advertisement as ad-VER-tis-ment, and thought this was a strange way of pronouncing it, so I'm curious to know in which part of the united States he could've possibly gotten that from.
The t in between VER and tis sounded blended in together like in verdict, vertices, etc.
British English always accents the second syllable of advertisement — adVERtisement — but the s may be voiced to a z-sound or not.
The forvo.com collection of user-submitted audio files shows an American pronunciation with primary accent falling on either the first or third syllable: ADvertisement or adverTISEment.
This empirically verifiable fact, however, is not acknowledged by most commonly available online resources, which apparently are also under the impression that the British pronunciation is heard enough in the US to list it second. Conversely, a 2011 article in the Telegraph reports that a British Library study found that some younger Britons have adopted American pronunciations of a number of words, including adverTISEment.
While noting the non-rhotic (r-dropping) pronunciation in the East and South, the Kenyon-Knott Pronouncing Dictionary of American English (1949) accents the third syllable with the British listed second. This pattern, without the non-rhotic pronunciations, is followed by both Merriam-Webster and Random House.
The American Heritage Dictionary accents on the first syllable, giving the British pronunciation as an alternative. The Wiktionary entry does the same, noting that the British pronunciation is heard “less often” in American English. The audio file provided as example, however, accents the third syllable.
The rest, I’m afraid, has to remain anecdotal. I have found no resource suggesting a regional preference for either American pronunciation over the other.
The pronunciation varies hugely.
OED, which tends towards RP in British English, gives
BRITISH ENGLISH /ədˈvəːtᵻsm(ə)nt/uhd-VUR-tuhss-muhnt and /ədˈvəːtᵻzm(ə)nt/ uhd-VUR-tuhz-muhnt
U.S. ENGLISH /ˈædvərˌtaɪzmənt/ AD-vuhr-tighz-muhnt and /ədˈvərdəzmənt/ uhd-VUR-duhz-muhnt
https://www.wordreference.com/definition/advertisement has nine spoken accents
Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English gives ad•ver•tise•ment /ˌædvɚˈtaɪzmənt, ædˈvɜrtɪsmənt, -tɪz-/
Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English gives ad•ver•tise•ment (ad′vər tīz′mənt, ad vûr′tis mənt, -tiz-),
Collins Concise English Dictionary gives advertisement, sometimes US advertizement /ədˈvɜːtɪsmənt -tɪz-/
and MW gives ad·ver·tise·ment ˌad-vər-ˈtīz-mənt əd-ˈvər-təz-mənt, -tə-smənt
Given the above, the simplest advice on pronunciation is "Whatever you think it is." I don't think it is useful to be prescriptive or attempt classification.
Coming from upstate NY, I’d always thought that “AdVERtisment” was simply pretentious in America (I’ve only heard ADvertizement from an in-the-flesh human). In Britain, I think AdVERtisment is normal, and probably also in other U.S. regions. However, I’ve only heard it pronounced that way in shows or movies and I live in an educated, upper-middle class town. So I believe that it’s not related to social class or economic standing, but simply geographical, although I wouldn’t be surprised of it varies not by region but by town.
I'm Irish and everyone here pronounces it as adverTISEments.
