Editing Basque language (section)

=== Stress and pitch ===
{{main|Pitch-accent language#Basque}}
Basque features great dialectal variation in accentuation, from a weak [[Pitch-accent language|pitch accent]] in the western dialects to a marked stress in central and eastern dialects, with varying patterns of stress placement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hualde |first=J.I. |date=1986 |title=Tone and Stress in Basque: A Preliminary Survey |url=http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/ASJU/article/viewFile/7813/7007 |journal=Anuario del Seminario Julio de Urquijo |volume=XX |issue=3 |pages=867–896 |access-date=22 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418225614/http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/ASJU/article/viewFile/7813/7007 |archive-date=18 April 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Stress is in general not distinctive (and for historical comparisons not very useful); there are, however, a few instances where stress is phonemic, serving to distinguish between a few pairs of stress-marked words and between some grammatical forms (mainly plurals from other forms), e.g. {{lang|eu|basóà}} ({{gloss|the forest}}, absolutive case) vs. {{lang|eu|básoà}} ({{gloss|the glass}}, absolutive case; an adoption from Spanish {{lang|es|vaso}}); {{lang|eu|basóàk}} ({{gloss|the forest}}, ergative case) vs. {{lang|eu|básoàk}} ({{gloss|the glass}}, ergative case) vs. {{lang|eu|básoak}} ({{gloss|the forests}} or {{gloss|the glasses}}, absolutive case).

Given its great deal of variation among dialects, stress is not marked in the standard [[orthography]] and [[Euskaltzaindia]] (the Academy of the Basque Language) provides only general recommendations for a standard placement of stress, basically to place a high-pitched weak stress (weaker than that of Spanish, let alone that of English) on the second syllable of a [[Syntagmatic structure|syntagma]], and a low-pitched even-weaker stress on its last syllable, except in plural forms where stress is moved to the first syllable.

This scheme provides Basque with a distinct musicality that differentiates its sound from the [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosodical]] patterns of Spanish (which tends to stress the second-to-last syllable). Some {{lang|eu|Euskaldun berriak}} ({{gloss|new Basque-speakers}}, i.e. second-language Basque-speakers) with Spanish as their first language tend to carry the prosodical patterns of Spanish into their pronunciation of Basque, e.g. pronouncing {{lang|eu|nire ama}} ({{gloss|my mum}}) as {{lang|eu|nire áma}} (– – ´ –), instead of as {{lang|eu|niré amà}} (– ´ – `).