Editing Stress (linguistics) (section)

===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}}).