PE3011 English Language Studies and Teaching 1
Phonetics Lecture 6 - Strong and Weak Syllables and Word Stress
(Reading : Roach, Ch. 9 - 11 )
Say these words:
attend tomorrow
busy react
cattle threaten
How many syllables are there in each of the words?
What contrast do you notice between the italicized parts and the unitalized parts?
Strong and Weak Syllables
Stressed syllables are called strong syllables, while unstressed syllables are called weak syllables. A strong syllable may contain any vowels except / « / as its peak, whereas the most common vowels in a weak syllable are / « /, / I /, or / U /.
Examples of Weak Syllables :
attend /«tend/ tomorrow /t«m r«U/
busy /bIzI/ react /rIækt/
A weak syllable may also contain a syllabic consonant instead of a vowel as in the cases of the words threaten and cattle
threaten /retn/
cattle /kætl/
Syllabic Consonants
· either /l/ or a nasal /n/ as the centre of the syllable
· represented by a small vertical mark " . ".
See pp.86-87 of Roach’s book for examples.
The Nature of Stress in General
· produced with more muscular energy than unstressed syllables.
· more prominent than unstressed syllables.
· i.e., clearer (louder), longer, higher in pitch and different in quality from neighbouring sounds. Of these four qualities, the most powerful are pitch and length.
Start here Week 8
Do Units 9.1-5 (Roach’s book)
Levels of Stress
Say the word ‘photographic’ and mark the stressed syllables.
What do you notice?
Primary Stress and Secondary Stress
‘photographic’ /Çf«Ut«'græfIk/
· carrying both primary stress and secondary stress
· the primary stress falling on the third syllable
· secondary stress on the first syllable
Primary stress
· the strongest type of stress.
· Marked by placing a small vertical line ' high up, just before the syllable concerned.
Secondary Stress
· weaker than primary stress but stronger than the stress of other syllables.
· Marked by placing a low mark Ç .
Try the word ‘poetic’.
Identify the primary stress and the secondary stress and the unstressed syllable.
Try the word ‘potato’.
Compare the unstressed syllable of the word with the secondary stress of the word ‘poetic’.
the first syllable of the word "poetic" /p«U'etIk/ is more prominent than the first syllable of the word "around" /p/.
Start here Week 9
Stress in Simple Words
Some descriptive rules which may help in predicting word stress :
Nouns and adjectives: first syllable stressed
e.g. water / 'w t« / table / 'teIbl / brother / 'brÃD« /
pretty / 'prItI / ugly / 'ÃglI / beautiful / 'bju:tIfl /
Complex Words
Words with Prefixes (e.g., "be-", "in-", "dis-", "ex-", "un-" etc)
Usually on the second or third syllable, i.e. these prefixes are not stressed. Actually, prefixes do not affect stress placement of stem words.
e.g.
distrust /dIs'trÃst/
unhappy /Ãn'hæpI/
beloved /bI'lÃvd/
Words with Suffixes (e.g., ‘ee’, ‘ty’)
There are suffixes which carry stress themselves :
e.g.
ciga'rette
refu'gee
enter'tain
There are some suffixes which do not affect stress placement :
e.g.
'comfort 'comfortable
re'fuse re'fusal
'poison 'poisonous
'glory 'glorify
There are suffixes which influence stress in the stem
e.g. ad'vantage 'photo e'conomy
advan'tageous pho'tography eco'nomical
Compound Words
First syallable stressed usually when the noun comes with two words where the first word characterize the second.
e.g. a 'teapot a 'chairman a 'blackbird
What kind? Which kind? What kind?
The kind for tea The kind who chairs The black kind
(Compare : What a beautiful blackbird! and Look at that big black bird!)
Compounds with an adjectival first element and the -ed suffix have stress on the second element.
e.g. bad-'tempered heavy-'handed
Word-Class Pairs
There are several dozen pairs of two-syllable words with identical spelling which differ from each other in stress placement, depending on what word class they belong to. Normally, one of these pairs is a verb and the other is either a noun or an adjective. The stress will be placed on the second syllable if the word is a verb, but on the first syllable if the word is a noun or an adjective.
e.g. ab'stract (verb) 'abstract (adjective)
ex'port (verb) 'export (noun)
in'sult (verb) 'insult (noun)
Do Units 10.1-5 (Roach’s book)
(Refer to Roach’s Chapter 10 & Speaking Clearly for a more comprehensive set of descriptive rules.)