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Orange juice is early-stressed, but initialisms are usually late-stressed (e.g., CIA /ˌsiaɪˈeɪ/), so how is OJ pronounced?

Compare knockout /ˈnɒk aʊt/ and KO /ˌkeɪ ˈəʊ/

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Good question. I hadn't thought about it before, but the generalization that acronyms are late-stressed doesn't seem to apply (at least, not invariably) to cases like this: I accent OJ "orange juice" on the first syllable ([ˈoʊdʒeɪ]).

I'm not sure how relevant it is that "orange juice" is early-stressed. The accent of an acronym is not always in the same place as the unabbreviated phrase: I accent the first syllable of operating system and air conditioner but the last syllable of OS and AC. I accent the first syllable of television but the second syllable of TV: apparently, some people accent the first, which suggests there aren't any hard-and-fast rules.

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  • Actually Longman gives for both AmE and BrE as the primary pronunciation /ˈteləˌvɪʒən /
    – GJC
    Commented Nov 8 at 15:26
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    And AC for air-conditioning isn't the same as AC for alternating current, possibly because there is an implied comparison with DC.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Nov 8 at 15:28
  • OJ is equally stressed as the words: Oh jay. And we say to stress or place the tonic stress on some word or syllable, the verb accent here doesn't work for me at all.
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 8 at 16:10
  • I suspect it's relevant that, while one might contrast OJ with other kinds of juice, one wouldn't contrast an AC with other kinds of conditioning.
    – alphabet
    Commented Nov 8 at 21:51

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