Onychophagia

Pronounce as /ˌɒnɪkəˈfeɪdʒə/ (UK) or /ˌɑːnɪkəˈfeɪdʒə/ (US) with the primary stress on the third syllable '-pha-'. Break it as o-ny-CHO-pha-gia, keeping the 'ny' as a palatal nasal /ɲ/ roughly approximated by /nj/ in English. Begin with a short back vowel in 'on-', glide to the mid 'ni', stress the 'pha' sound as /feɪ/, and finish with /dʒə/. You’ll align with the standard medical pronunciation used in clinical notes.

Common errors include placing primary stress on the wrong syllable (often stressing 'on' or 'ny' instead of 'pha'), mispronouncing the 'ph' as /f/ alone without the 'ja' sound, and blending syllables too tightly (o-ni-CHOF-age-uh). Correction: emphasize the /ɪ/ in the second syllable, render 'phag' as /feɪdʒ/ rather than /feɡ/, and clearly separate the final '-ia' as /-ɪə/ or /-yə/ depending on accent. Practice with slow enunciated segments: on-i-kə-pha-dge-ə.

In US English, you’ll hear /ˌɑː.nɪ.kəˈfeɪ.dʒə/ or /ˌɒ.nɪ.kəˈfeɪ.dʒə/ with a rhotic 'r'-like influence in adjacent words but not in the word itself; the final '-gia' often reduces to /-dʒə/. UK English typically uses /ˌɒnɪkəˈfeɪdʒə/ with non-rhoticity; AU resembles UK but may have slightly broader vowel qualities and a quicker cadence. The critical vowel in 'pha-' is /eɪ/ in all variants; the initial 'Ony-'/**/ɒnɪ/** still differs slightly by vowel height and length. Overall rhythm is trochaic-unstressed-stressed-unstressed-unstressed, with final schwa sometimes reduced.

It’s challenging because it contains back-to-front cluster 'onycho-' with a palatal nasal /ɲ/ approximated in English as /nj/ and a final /dʒə/ sequence that can blur in casual speech. The stress pattern places emphasis on the '-pha-' segment, which you must carry with the /feɪ/ diphthong while maintaining a crisp /dʒ/ onset for '-gia'. The word’s length and unfamiliar morphology increase the likelihood of syllable reduction or misplacement of stress.

There are no silent letters in standard pronunciation of onychophagia. Each syllable contains a spoken phoneme: /ɒ/ or /ɒn/ in US/UK, the /ɲ/ approximation in 'ny' is spoken as /n/ + /j/ sequence, the /feɪ/ in 'pha', and the final /dʒə/ in 'gia'. Ensure you voice each segment clearly, avoiding elision, so listeners hear all five syllables and the stress peak on '-pha-'.