Editing Stress (linguistics) (section)

== Word stress ==
Word stress, or sometimes ''lexical stress'', is the stress placed on a given syllable in a word. The position of word stress in a word may depend on certain general rules applicable in the language or [[dialect]] in question, but in other languages, it must be learned for each word, as it is largely unpredictable, for example [[Stress and vowel reduction in English|in English]]. In some cases, classes of words in a language differ in their stress properties; for example, [[loanword]]s into a language with ''fixed'' stress may preserve stress placement from the source language, or the [[sezer stress|special pattern for Turkish placenames]].

===Non-phonemic stress===
In some languages, the placement of stress can be determined by rules. It is thus not a [[Phoneme|phonemic property]] of the word, because it can always be predicted by applying the rules.

Languages in which the position of the stress can usually be predicted by a simple rule are said to have ''fixed stress''. For example, in [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] and [[Latvian language|Latvian]], the stress almost always comes on the first syllable of a word. In [[Armenian Language|Armenian]] the stress is on the last syllable of a word.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mirakyan |first=Norayr |date=2016 |title=The Implications of Prosodic Differences Between English and Armenian |url=http://www.ysu.am/files/SSS_BookCollect_3_2016,%20pp.%2091-96.pdf |journal=Collection of Scientific Articles of YSU SSS |publisher=YSU Press |volume=1.3 |issue=13 |pages= 91–96 }}</ref> In [[Quechua language|Quechua]], [[Esperanto]], and [[Polish language|Polish]], the stress is almost always on the [[penult]] (second-last syllable). In [[stress in Macedonian language|Macedonian]], it is on the [[antepenult]] (third-last syllable).

Other languages have stress placed on different syllables but in a predictable way, as in [[Classical Arabic]] and [[Latin]], where stress is conditioned by the [[syllable weight|weight]] of particular syllables. They are said to have a regular stress rule.

Statements about the position of stress are sometimes affected by the fact that when a word is spoken in isolation, prosodic factors (see below) come into play, which do not apply when the word is spoken normally within a sentence. [[French phonology|French]] words are sometimes said to be stressed on the final syllable, but that can be attributed to the [[#Prosodic stress|prosodic stress]], which is placed on the last syllable (unless it is a [[schwa]] in which case the stress is placed on the second-last syllable) of any string of words in that language. Thus, it is on the last syllable of a word analyzed in isolation. The situation is [[stress in Standard Chinese|similar in Mandarin Chinese]]. French and [[Georgian phonology|Georgian]] (and, according to some authors, Mandarin Chinese)<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Phonology of Standard Chinese |first=San |last=Duanmu |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |pages=134}}</ref> can be considered to have no real lexical stress.

===Phonemic stress===
With some exceptions above, languages such as [[Germanic languages]], [[Romance languages]], the [[East Slavic languages|East]] and [[South Slavic languages]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Greek language|Greek]], as well as others, in which the position of stress in a word is not fully predictable, are said to have ''phonemic stress''.  Stress in these languages is usually truly lexical and must be memorized as part of the pronunciation of an individual word. In some languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Lakota language|Lakota]] and, to some extent, Italian, stress is even represented in writing using diacritical marks, for example in the Spanish words {{lang|es|c'''é'''lebre}} and {{lang|es|celebr'''é'''}}. Sometimes, stress is fixed for all forms of a particular word, or it can fall on different syllables in different inflections of the same word.

In such languages with phonemic stress, the position of stress can serve to distinguish otherwise identical words. For example, the English words ''insight'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|n|s|aɪ|t}}) and ''incite'' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|n|ˈ|s|aɪ|t}}) are distinguished in pronunciation only by the fact that the stress falls on the first syllable in the former and on the second syllable in the latter. Examples from other languages include [[German language|German]] {{lang|de|[[wikt:Tenor#German|Tenor]]}} ({{IPA|de|ˈteːnoːɐ̯|}} {{Gloss|gist of message}} vs. {{IPA|de|teˈnoːɐ̯|}} {{Gloss|tenor voice}}); and [[Italian language|Italian]] {{lang|it|[[wikt:ancora#Italian|ancora]]}} ({{IPA|it|ˈaŋkora|}} {{Gloss|anchor}} vs. {{IPA|it|aŋˈkoːra|}} {{Gloss|more, still, yet, again}}).

In many languages with lexical stress, it is [[#Stress and vowel reduction|connected with alternations in vowels and/or consonants]], which means that vowel quality differs by whether vowels are stressed or unstressed. There may also be limitations on certain phonemes in the language in which stress determines whether they are allowed to occur in a particular syllable or not. That is the case with most examples [[Stress and vowel reduction in English|in English]] and occurs systematically [[Vowel reduction in Russian|in Russian]], such as {{lang|ru|за́мок}} ({{IPA|ru|ˈzamək|}}, {{Gloss|castle}}) vs. {{lang|ru|замо́к}} ({{IPA|ru|zɐˈmok|}}, {{Gloss|lock}}); and [[Portuguese phonology#Vowel alternation|in Portuguese]], such as the triplet {{lang|pt|sábia}} ({{IPA|pt|ˈsaβjɐ|}}, {{Gloss|wise woman}}), {{lang|pt|sabia}} ({{IPA|pt|sɐˈβiɐ|}}, {{Gloss|knew}}), {{lang|pt|sabiá}} ({{IPA|pt|sɐˈβja|}}, {{Gloss|thrush}}).

Dialects of the same language may have different stress placement. For instance, the English word ''laboratory'' is stressed on the second syllable in [[British English]] (''labóratory'' often pronounced "labóratry", the second ''o'' being silent), but the first syllable in [[American English]], with a secondary stress on the "tor" syllable (''láboratory'' often pronounced "lábratory"). The Spanish word {{lang|es|video}} is stressed on the first syllable in Spain ({{lang|es-ES|v'''í'''deo}}) but on the second syllable in the Americas ({{lang|es-019|vid'''e'''o}}). The Portuguese words for [[Madagascar]] and the continent [[Oceania]] are stressed on the third syllable in [[European Portuguese]] ({{lang|pt-PT|Madag'''á'''scar}} and {{lang|pt-PT|Oce'''â'''nia}}), but on the fourth syllable in [[Brazilian Portuguese]] ({{lang|pt-BR|Madagasc'''a'''r}} and {{lang|pt-BR|Ocean'''i'''a}}).

===Compounds===
With very few exceptions, English [[compound (linguistics)|compound words]] are stressed on their first component. Even the exceptions, such as ''mankínd'',<ref>[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/mankind "mankind"] in the Collins English Dictionary.</ref> are instead often stressed on the first component by some people or in some kinds of English.<ref>{{Cite web |title=mankind |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=mankind |access-date=2023-04-04 |website=The American Heritage Dictionary |publisher=HarperCollins}}</ref> The same components as those of a compound word are sometimes used in a descriptive phrase with a different meaning and with stress on both words, but that descriptive phrase is then not usually considered a compound: ''bláck bírd'' (any bird that is black) and ''bláckbird'' (a [[common blackbird|specific bird species]]) and ''páper bág'' (a bag made of paper) and ''páper bag'' (very rarely used for a bag for carrying newspapers but often also used for a bag made of paper).<ref>[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/paper-bag "paper bag"] in the Collins English Dictionary</ref>

=== Levels of stress ===
{{Further|Secondary stress}}
Some languages are described as having both ''primary stress'' and ''secondary stress''. A syllable with secondary stress is stressed relative to unstressed syllables but not as strongly as a syllable with primary stress. As with primary stress, the position of secondary stress may be more or less predictable depending on language. In English, it is not fully predictable, but the different secondary stress of the words ''organization'' and ''accumulation'' (on the first and second syllable, respectively) is predictable due to the same stress of the verbs ''órganize'' and ''accúmulate''. In some analyses, for example the one found in Chomsky and Halle's ''[[The Sound Pattern of English]]'', English has been described as having four levels of stress: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary, but the treatments often disagree with one another.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} <!--English secondary stress does not have the phonetic characteristics normally associated with stress, [surely not true in general?] -->

[[Peter Ladefoged]] and other phoneticians have noted that it is possible to describe English with only one degree of stress, as long as prosody is recognized and [[unstressed vowel|unstressed syllables]] are phonemically distinguished for [[vowel reduction]].<ref name=Lad>Ladefoged (1975 ''etc.'') ''[[A course in phonetics]]'' §&nbsp;5.4; (1980) ''Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics'' p 83</ref> They find that the multiple levels posited for English, whether ''primary–secondary'' or ''primary–secondary–tertiary'', are not [[phonetic]] stress (let alone [[phoneme|phonemic]]), and that the supposed secondary/tertiary stress is not characterized by the increase in respiratory activity associated with primary/secondary stress in English and other languages. (For further detail see [[Stress and vowel reduction in English]].)