Ask Language Log: pronouncing apoptosis

From AB, MD (CPT, MC, USA):

I have an odd inquiry that I'm hoping you'll oblige. My question is about the preferred pronunciation of apoptosis. I believe the scientist who originally described this phenomenon asked a linguist to invoke an image of an Autumn tree shedding a leaf. We are now in an intense debate about the most accurate pronunciation of this word. As a long time language log reader, I was hoping you could help us settle this fiery debate. How do you pronounce apoptosis? Thank you very much! 

I have no special expertise in this matter, since I know the word mainly from reading, and have probably not had the occasion to say it more than a couple of times in my life. But FWIW, I would have said (in IPA) something like

/ˌæ.pɐpˈtoʊ.sɪs/.

The OED more or less agrees, giving

/ˌapɒpˈtəʊsᵻs/ , U.S. /ˌæpəpˈtoʊsəs/

Wiktionary gives

(UK) /ˌapɒpˈtəʊsɪs/, (US) /ˌæ.pəˈtoʊ.sɪs/, /ˌæpəpˈtoʊsəs/

The deletion of the second /p/ in the first U.S. version presumably reflects the etymology  ἀπο– "away from" + πτῶσις "falling", where the idea is that the 'p' is silent in ptosis (in English), like in ptomaine or pterosaur.

(By the way,Wiktionary's audio rendition for the UK version

Your browser does not support the audio element.

seems confusingly different from the UK IPA transcription.)

Merriam-Webster gives

\ˌa-pəp-ˈtō-səs, -pə-ˈtō-\

with the audio rendition

Your browser does not support the audio element.

which suggests that by /a/ they mean /æ/.

Summing it all up, it looks to me like the standard U.S. pronunciation would probably be something like the OED's

/ˌæ.pəpˈtoʊsɪs/

The silent-p-in-ptosis idea strikes me as unwise, because likely to confuse people. And the OED cites Nature 1994 to the same point:

1994   Nature 28 Sept. 98/2   The ‘p’ in ptosis is silent, and on that basis students are commonly exhorted to pronounce apoptosis as apo'tosis… The silent ‘p’, however, appears neither correct nor attractive in words in which the Greek-derived ‘pt’ occurs in the middle of a composite word.

The argument, I guess, would be that the silent initial 'p' is due to the phonotactics of English, where initial /pt/ is not allowed. But in the middle of the word, resyllabification can occur, licensing the /p/.

Hope that helps.