Word Stress, syllabic consonants

Question 1

Stress

Answer 1

Stress refers to the relative prominence of a syllable

Question 2

Primary Stress

Answer 2

• the syllable in a word which receives most stress (longer + louder)
  > ‘ in front of a syllable marks primary stress
  > for words with more than one syllable

Question 3

Secondary Stress

Answer 3

• Syllables that receive less stress than the one with primary stress, but which are not unstressed
  > , in front of a syllable marks secondary stress
  > only indicate if asked specifically

Question 4

Unstressed Syllables

Answer 4

Syllables which have neither primary nor secondary stress

Question 5

Rules for stress placement in words

Answer 5

• syllables with schwa never receive stress > guidelines valid for many cases

Disyllabic words:
- Verbs > tend to be stressed nearer the end of the word
- Nouns > tend to be stressed nearer the beginning of the word

Question 6

Name four phonetic variables that indicate stress!

Answer 6

1. intensity perceived as loudness
2. pitch variety
3. vowel quality
4. vowel duration

Question 7

Syllable

Answer 7

Syllables are rhythmic units in speech

Question 8

Structure of the syllable

Answer 8

A Syllable consists of different parts:
1. onset (consonant in front of the nucleus)
2. rhyme (nucleus+coda)
> nucleus/peak ((usually) the vowel)
> coda (consonants after the nucleus)

=> the nucleus is the only obligatory part of the syllable

Question 9

Classification of syllables

Answer 9

> strong/heavy syllables
weak/light syllables

Question 10

Strong/Heavy Syllables

Answer 10

short monophthong + coda (no /ə, i, u/)
> only strong syllables can receive stress

Question 11

Weak/Light Syllables

Answer 11

> /ə/ + coda
short monophthong or unstressed /i, u,/ as nucleus and empty coda

=> syllables with a schwa as their nucleus are never stressed

Question 12

Syllabic consonants

Answer 12

> sometimes a vowel is dropped (usually schwa)
=> consonant becomes the centre of the syllable

Question 13

Unstressed /i/

Answer 13

• in word-final or morpheme-final position when the final i-sound is spelled as <y> or <ey> </ey> </y>
• in unstressed prefixes like {re-}, {de-}, and {pre-} when followed by a vowel
• if the unstressed prefix is followed by a consonant: usually [ɪ]
• in suffixes like <-iate>, <-ious> or <-ial> when they are pronounced as two syllables
• in unstressed (function) words (such as he, she , we , me, …)
• in function words (such as to, into) when the next word starts with a vowel

Question 14

Unstressed /u/

Answer 14

• in an unstressed syllable before a vowel
  > e.g. influence -> /ɪnfluənts/
• in unstressed (function) words (such as you…)
• in function words (such as to, into) when the next word starts with a vowel