# pronunciation: fission



## mjscott

The population where I live is teeming with PhDs--many who have spent a good part of their livelihoods on research in nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. In my neck of the woods *fission *rhymes with _vision_.

Even though I've gone to pronunciation sites and pronunciation guides, I have a hard time realizing that outside my corner of the world people pronounce *fission* the same as _fishin'_ like, "I gotta split. I'm goin' fishin'."

I would like to know how YOU pronounce fission--such as in nuclear fission.
Thank you.


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## SweetMommaSue

Hello mjscott ,

Everywhere I have been, I have heard it pronounced as "FISHIN'" as in, "I'm goin' fishin'."  I say it that way, too!


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## foxfirebrand

I'm goin with _fishin._

"Fusion," however, has a voiced "s."  Maybe pronouncing "fission" that way is a back-formation?
.


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## elroy

Another vote for _fishin'_.


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## cuchuflete

A vote close to your piscatorial hearts, but slipping off the hook at the end.
I say fishun, rather than fishin.  But it's close.


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## timpeac

Hehe I just love to buck the trend - for me it rhymes with "vision", with the small difference that "vision" has a voiced "zh" sound of "pleasure" whilst "fission" has the "sh" of "shop". For the record, my pronunciation of "fishin" would be just like saying the separate words "fish in" (as opposed to fish uhn for fission).

Guys - before we read too much into what rhymes with what we need to remember that our respective pronunciations of "vision" (etc) may vary too...


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## te gato

Hey MJ;

Well...I'm in the same boat with Cuchu...

and he is hogging all the worms...

tg


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## GenJen54

I'm in the "fishun" camp, as well, and I blame it on the double "s."  

If fission were spelled fision, I would pronounce it with the zh as in vision.


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## elroy

elroy said:
			
		

> Another vote for _fishin'_.


 
Well, I just chose _fishin'_ because it was the closer of the two options presented. 

I assumed the difference was understood.  I, too, pronounce it more like /fishen/.  The "sion" sounds the same as the "tion" in "nation."


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## mjscott

Timpeac-
Kudos for the caveat on pronunciation.
Thanks to ALL for the real eye-opener on pronunciation. I guess except for living in a community where the Manhattan Project was developed, one doesn't have much opportunity to kick up much of a conversation about nuclear fission. Totally unaware it was pronounced any other way than rhyming with vision (at least here).


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## Brioche

My English Pronouncing Dictionary (Daniel Jones et al) says: fishn


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## panjandrum

The OED agrees with Brioche - with a schwa between *fish* and *n*.
That's my version too.


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## fltnsplr

Here in California it's almost always pronounced fishin', and that's how I say it as well.  (The only person I know who inclines toward the zh sound is my girlfriend.)


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## timpeac

fltnsplr said:


> Here in California it's almost always pronounced fishin', and that's how I say it as well. (The only person I know who inclines toward the zh sound is my girlfriend.)


 But as I note above - we would need to know how you pronounce "fishin'". I'd be willing to guess it's not the same as me.


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## Adge

Well I would like to throw myself in the "fission like vision" camp. I can't say I've ever heard it pronounced the other way (and I don't make this with an "sh" either, it's a good old-fashioned "zh").

But the rest of y'all can share some of those fish you're catching; that would be nice.


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## mplsray

mjscott said:


> The population where I live is teeming with PhDs--many who have spent a good part of their livelihoods on research in nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. In my neck of the woods *fission *rhymes with _vision_.
> 
> Even though I've gone to pronunciation sites and pronunciation guides, I have a hard time realizing that outside my corner of the world people pronounce *fission* the same as _fishin'_ like, "I gotta split. I'm goin' fishin'."
> 
> I would like to know how YOU pronounce fission--such as in nuclear fission.
> Thank you.



I pronounce _fission_ to rhyme with _vision_, and I was actually surprised to learn from this thread that there are people who pronounce it with a _sh_ sound.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary has both pronunciations.


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## ewie

I pronounce _fission_ to sound like _fishun_, and I was actually surprised to learn from this thread that there are people who pronounce it with a _zh_ sound.


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## Forero

I have heard _fission_ pronounced both ways, rhyming with _vision_ or rhyming with _mission_, but not as "fishin'" except in a few jokes.  _Fissionable_ I have only heard with the _ision_ of _vision_.


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## panjandrum

I wonder if the fizhin vershun is modelled on fyuzhin (fusion) - the other major nuclear reakshun.


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## Loob

Forero said:


> I have heard _fission_ pronounced both ways, rhyming with _vision_ or rhyming with _mission_, but not as "fishin'" except in a few jokes. _Fissionable_ I have only heard with the _ision_ of _vision_.


Both fission and fissionable, for me, would have a 'sh' sound as in "fish".

I once worked for a Defence Minister who couldn't pronounce 'nuclear'.  Rather unfortunate, really.


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## Forero

panjandrum said:


> I wonder if the fizhin vershun is modelled on fyuzhin (fusion) - the other major nuclear reakshun.


Akshully, _version_ is usually pronounced "vurzhun" in AmE, since it has only one _s_.  _Fission_ has two _s_es and should, theoretically, be "fishun". I don't know of any other _-ssion_ word with a _zh_ instead of an _sh_ sound.


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## mplsray

There is an interesting article about the pronunciation of _fission_ here. 

For a historical perspective, The Century Dictionary of 1895 has only that pronunciation of _fission_ which rhymes with _mission._ The 1909 supplement to that dictionary has a couple of compound words, _fission-algae_ and _fission-plants,_ in which _fission_ again rhymes only with _mission._ This doesn't mean that the version rhyming with _vision_ did not exist at the time, but if it did, it was evidently not recognized as standard.


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## mathman

In physics, it's pronounced like "vision," not "fishin." I have a PhD in physics, and have never heard anyone pronounce it like "fishin."


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## archimedion

Yep (to mathman). I've only ever heard it pronounced fizhun ('zh' pronounced like vision). But that may be because I live in NorCal...


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## natkretep

The OED includes only the pronunciation that rhymes with MISSION.


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## mathman

natkretep said:


> The OED includes only the pronunciation that rhymes with MISSION.



Then it is at odds with the way that people who actually understand nuclear fission pronounce the word.


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## chamyto

Forero said:


> I have heard _fission_ pronounced both ways,* rhyming with vision or rhyming with mission*, but not as "fishin'" except in a few jokes.  _Fissionable_ I have only heard with the _ision_ of _vision_.



I usually pronounce "fission"  in the same way as you have heard


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## Ref_126

I would always pronounce -ssion in _fission _with an affricate (like "mission"). 
The fact that some people have a preference for a voiced suffix may be due to Zipf's Law (law of least effort). It takes less effort to say /zh/ than /sh/.

The English language can be quite odd, as we all know. Take the word _equation _for example. It usually rhymes with (_per_)_suasion _[/-zh@n/], although it ends in -tion, which is almost invariably pronounced /-sh@n/ (e.g., _action_, _caution_, _lotion_, _nation_, etc.)


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## ewie

mathman said:


> Then it is at odds with the way that people who actually understand nuclear fission pronounce the word.


I understand nuclear fission (more or less).  I pronounce it _fishun_.
I don't understand quantum mechanics, but that doesn't mean I pronounce it _kwan-toom mesh-a-neex._


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## envie de voyager

There's an old joke:

What did the British inventor use to power his nuclear reactor?   Fission chips.

This joke wouldn't work if fission rhymed with vision.


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## Forero

I suspect _fission_ was pronounced only with _sh_ until the nuclear age and that the _zh_ pronunciation of _fission_ came from association with _fusion_.

Because there is no word _fusile_, and _fissile_ associates with _missile_ and does not "want" to sound like _fizzle_, _fissile_ keeps its /s/ even where _-ile_ is pronounced without the long _i_. _Fissionable_ has _fusible_ as a near "mate".

Among physicists, I think I have heard a verb for _fission_ that sounds like _fizz_, but I don't know how to spell it.


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## Forero

envie de voyager said:


> There's an old joke:
> 
> What did the British inventor use to power his nuclear reactor?   Fission chips.
> 
> This joke wouldn't work if fission rhymed with vision.


It would likely not work as "fission fries", hence the reference to Britain. (Both _chips_ and the _sh_ pronunciation are associated with Britain.)


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## ewie

There's another (crap) old joke*:
_What did the nuclear physicist get when he lost his glasses?
Blurred fission_.
Of course this wouldn't work in those tiny pockets of the world where _fission_ rhymes with _mission_.

*Just invented.


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## mathman

ewie said:


> I understand nuclear fission (more or less).  I pronounce it _fishun_.
> I don't understand quantum mechanics, but that doesn't mean I pronounce it _kwan-toom mesh-a-neex._



We're going to have to differ on what "understand" means, then. 

It may be a BE/AE thing, since I don't know many BE-speaking physicists. But I've checked today with more than a dozen AE-speaking physicists, and all of them thought the "fishin/fishun" pronunciation was wrong.


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## ewie

My (oblique) point, MM, was that it's not necessary to be an expert in a discipline in order to know how to pronounce it >>> the way one has _always_ pronounced it, the way one has always _heard _it pronounced.
I can't now remember if I said it in my first post in this thread, but I have _never ever _heard _fission_ rhyming with _vision._


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## envie de voyager

If fission rhymed with vision, it would be spelled "fision."


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## lablady

It appears to me that what we have here are a bunch of linguists telling the scientists how to pronounce their job. 

Speaking from an AE perspective only, in the US it may be less a regional thing and more a scientist/non-scientist thing, with non-scientists who are in close association with scientists also picking up the scientific pronunciation. I pronounce "fission" with the "zh" sound, as I was taught to do by a long string of physics professors. 

In my opinion, the "gone fission" "blurred fission" and "fission chips" jokes all still work and may be even funnier because of the difference in pronunciation.


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## Loob

lablady said:


> It appears to me that what we have here are a bunch of linguists telling the scientists how to pronounce their job.


How cruel, lablady!  Don't forget the original question was _*I would like to know how YOU pronounce fission*_

I agree the jokes still work, though


mathman said:


> It may be a BE/AE thing


It clearly is, at least in part. 
I heard "fission"/"fissionable" a fair bit as a UK civil servant, including from BrE-speaking nuclear scientists. It was always, as I recall, pronounced with the "sh" of _mission_.


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## JulianStuart

Thanks, ray, for the link to that article (discussion and analysis of an on-line poll - linked in post#22).  That, and the other comments seem to point quite strongly in the direction of this summary:

In BrE (even with physicists) it's almost exclusively -ss- 
In AE physicists prefer -zh-, while the rest of the population is split:  the split seems more pronounced in "physicist vs. mere mortals" than it does in any geographical sense.


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## Loob

Nice summary, JS


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## mathman

ewie said:


> My (oblique) point, MM, was that it's not necessary to be an expert in a discipline in order to know how to pronounce it >>> the way one has _always_ pronounced it, the way one has always _heard _it pronounced.
> I can't now remember if I said it in my first post in this thread, but I have _never ever _heard _fission_ rhyming with _vision._



I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about this: I don't think you need to be an expert in a discipline in order to pronounce a word used in that discipline. 

My point was just that people who are (AE-speaking) experts in the discipline pronounce it a certain way. 

If you pronounce it differently, it tells those same experts that you are most probably not an expert in that discipline, unless you say it with a British accent, in which case they will ascribe it to a BE/AE difference of opinion. 

Not being an expert in a discipline is not a personal failing. I, for instance, fail to be an expert in almost every discipline, yet sleep soundly at night.


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## donjavi

I think it sounds like e*fficien*t (without the first "e" and "t")


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## panjandrum

It seems that AE-speaking nuclear scientists pronounce fission to rhyme with vision, the rest of the world pronounces fission to rhyme with mission.
Fair enough.
Odd, though.
Various speculators, and the link at post #22, suggest the reason for this.
I wonder did it begin as a joke


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## ewie

panjandrum said:


> I wonder did it begin as a joke


If it did, let's hope it wasn't one of _ours._


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## panjandrum

On reflection, it would be odd for fission to have adopted the pronunciation of fusion.  Fission came first, fusion came later.
If it had been a joke, the joke would have modelled fusion's pronunciation on _of_ fission and we would all pronounce fusion to rhyme with Russian.
Oops


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## ewie

panjandrum said:


> pronounce fusion to rhyme with Russian


Oh dear ... I feel another joke bubbling up.

Not really.  Don't panic.


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## mplsray

envie de voyager said:


> If fission rhymed with vision, it would be spelled "fision."



Interestingly enough, it does and isn't.


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