1. The first three letters, "rhe", should be pronounced the same as the letters "re" in the color "red".

2. The letter "t" is the source of two of the most common variations: 1. Some people include the "t" in the first syllable, while others include it in the second syllable; and 2. Some people pronounce the "t" with a "t" sound, while many morph it to more of a "d" sound.

Some people, such as myself, may apply these variations between the words rhetoric and rhetorician: I include the "t" as a "d" sound in the first syllable when saying rhetoric, but I shift the "t" to the second syllable and pronounce it with a typical "t" sound in rhetorician.

I do not consciously make this change; I theorize this unconscious difference originates from the same phenomenon that causes alternating stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry to be more satisfying to say aloud, most famously in iambic pentameter (Wikipedia has a good summary of iambic pentameter). A popular claim is the alternating rhythm is comforting and familiar due to its similarity to a heartbeat.

Rhetoric as "red-irr-ick" follows the amphibrachic pattern stressed-unstressed-stressed, while rhetorician as "reh-tur-ih-shin" follows the di-iambic pattern unstressed-stressed-unstressed-stressed, subtly giving each word more pleasant and smoother mouth feelings.

3. The letters "or" in rhetoric and rhetorician vary slightly depending on the speaker's accent: it may be pronounced "urr", like the letters "ur" in "nurse" or "urban", or it may be pronounced like the word "ore" or the letters "oor" in "door". As mentioned in the previous section, the letter "t" may shift to the same syllable as the "or", producing variations like "turr", "tore", "durr", and "door".

4. As the final two letters in the root word, "ic" morphs depending on whether you are saying rhetoric or rhetorician. The letter "i" should contribute the same sound to this syllable regardless of context: "ih", such as it does in the words "bit" or "kit".

In rhetoric, the letter "c" should contribute a hard "ck" sound, like the letters "ck" in the word "wick" or the name "Rick".

In rhetorician, the hard "ck" sound should be replaced by the soft "sh" sound, like the letters "sh" in the words "wish" or "fish".

One common variation between speakers is whether the "sh" sound is coupled with the "ih" sound to make "ish" like in the aforementioned words "wish" and "fish", or if it is pushed to the following syllable to create a sound like the words "shin" or "shun".

Some speakers subtly duplicate the "r" sound into the "ic" syllable, producing variations like "red-urr-rick" or "reh-turr-rih-shin".

A few speakers struggle with the "ish" sound and instead pronounce it like the word "itch", or "rich" with r duplication; these are rare.

5. The letters "ian" in rhetorician seem to trip up most people who do not hear the word often. In my 7 years of experience referring to myself as a rhetorician, only two people outside the field of rhetoric have pronounced rhetorician correctly in their first few tries.

The "-ian" suffix is the cause of the "ck" to "sh" replacement in the previous syllable, exactly as it is in the more common words "musician" ("mew-zick" to "mew-zish-un"), "physician" ("fih-zick" to "fih-zish-un"), and "electrician" ("ee-leck-trick" to "ee-leck-trish-un").

As mentioned above, a common morph in the "ician" part of rhetorician is whether the "sh" sound is in the third or fourth syllable.

Also common is the variation between pronouncing "ian" like the word "in" or pronouncing it like the letters "un" in the word "begun".

The only variation of "ian" I have heard that I consider invalid is pronouncing "ian" as if it was the name "Ian", like "ee-in". The person I heard say it this way paired it with a hard "ck" sound instead of the intended "sh" sound to produce "reh-turr-ick-ee-in".

The study of rhetoric dates back to ~600 BCE in Ancient Greece. There is some debate about who can claim "invention" of the study of rhetoric, with the most commonly claimed "co-founders" being Corax and his pupil, Tisias (you can learn more about the debate around the inventors of rhetoric in this article from a Cambridge University journal).

As mentioned above, their focus was political persuasive speaking; specifically, effective judicial argumentation in court. The works of Corax and Tisias influenced many of the greatest scholars of Ancient Greece, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

As the first democracy, Ancient Greece strongly valued public participation in politics; meaning the expansion of rhetoric to also apply to political speech outside the courtroom was inevitable and logical. The expansion occured sometime in the 200 years between the works of Corax and Tisias and the dialogues of Socrates as recorded by Plato, as evidenced by Plato's "Gorgias", which records Socrates arguing with self-advertised rhetoricians about the true definition of rhetoric.

While Socrates does not state an explicit, concise definition of rhetoric in this account, his concept of rhetoric is observable through his arguments. Socrates, like most of his contemporaries, conceptualized rhetoric in the manner of public speaking instead of a broader study of persuasion through all mediums. Socrates argues that rhetoric can be used for a just cause, but only if combined with philosophy; that is, if the speaker has pursued and learned "the truth", they can righteously use rhetoric to persuade an audience of "the truth". However, if the speaker has no background in searching for "the truth" through philosophy, their use of rhetoric will be unjust, often relying on tricks, flattery, and deception to persuade an audience.

This observably pessimistic view of rhetoric shared by Socrates is largely due to the reputation of the largest group of self-defined rhetoricians in Ancient Greece: the sophists, travelling teachers who advertised themselves as experts in one or more topics. Sophists were infamous throughout Ancient Greece for their reliance on misleading and gimmicky tricks instead of a genuine reverence for truth and authenticity.

Plato's works expose a similar view of rhetoric, though ironically, Plato's writings heavily utilized rhetorical techniques like what would later be defined as "mythos": appealing to a shared cultural belief to argue a point.

Despite the negative reputation of rhetoric in Ancient Greece c. 400 BCE, one man would redeem the study's public perception while completely redefining what rhetoric even is.

While Socrates and Plato had some impact on the field of rhetoric, Aristotle is considered one of the most influential rhetoricians of all time and wrote what many consider the most important single work ever written about persuasion, simply titled "Ῥητορική", or in English: "Rhetoric".

In his works, Aristotle gave an explicit definition of rhetoric that is far more optimistic than his predecessors, calling it "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion".

Aristotle's definition expanded rhetoric to be a practice employable in any communication context, not just political or judicial ones. In contrast to Socrates, who argued philosophy should be a prerequisite to rhetoric, Aristotle argued that rhetoric is one of three fundamental elements of philosophy and that rhetoric is useful in, and at times required for, the pursuit of "the truth" of a matter.

Despite this vast expansion of the concept of rhetoric to encompass more than just the realm of politics, Aristotle still limited his view of rhetoric to public speaking and almost exclusively focused his own study of rhetoric to its application in political matters. Further, Aristotle relegated rhetoric's usefulness to human affairs, instead designating logic to be the method for scientific pursuits.

Aristotle is responsible for naming the well-known persuasive avenues of ethos (arguments backed by authority or credibility), pathos (arguments appealing to emotion), and logos (arguments based in logic and reasoning).

Aristotle also identified three primary types of practiced rhetoric: forensic (argumentation regarding past actions or occurrences, typically used judicially), epideictic (statements made in the present, typically used ceremoniously), and deliberative (predictive arguments made about what will happen in the future given past or present events).