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
busy
cattle
tomorrow
react
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
busy
/«tend/
/bIzI/
tomorrow
react
/t«m•r«U/
/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"
prominent than the first syllable of
/p/.
/p«U'etIk/ is more
the word "around"
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 /
pretty
/ 'prItI / ugly / 'ÃglI /
Ifl /
brother / 'brÃD« /
beautiful / 'bju:t
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
advan'tageous
'photo
e'conomy
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
What kind?
a 'chairman
Which kind?
a 'blackbird
What kind?
The kind for tea
The kind who chairs
(Compare : What a beautiful blackbird!
black bird!)
and
The black kind
Look at that big
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)
ex'port (verb)
in'sult
(verb)
'abstract
'export
'insult
(adjective)
(noun)
(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.)