| Secondary stress | |
|---|---|
| ˌ◌ | |
| IPA number | 502 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ˌ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+02CC |
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Secondary stress (or secondary accent [obsolete]) is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word; the stronger degree of stress is called 'primary'. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for secondary stress is a short vertical line preceding and at the foot of the stressed syllable: the nun in proˌnunciˈation. Another tradition in English is to assign acute and grave accents for primary and secondary stress: pronùnciátion.
Most languages, if they have stress at all, have only one degree of it on the phonemic level. That is, each syllable has stress or it does not. Many languages have rhythmic stress; location of the stress may not be predictable, but once the location of one stressed syllable (which may be the primary stress) is known, certain syllables before or after can be predicted to also be stressed; these may have secondary stress.
However, a few languages may have secondary stress that is not predictable, that is, phonemic. English is generally considered to be such a language, but this analysis is problematic.
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In many phonological approaches, and in many dictionaries, English is represented as having two levels of stress. Secondary stress is important primarily in long words with several syllables before the primary stress, such as còunterintélligence [ˌkaʊntər.ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns], and after the primary stress in many compound words, such as cóunterfòil [ˈkaʊntərˌfɔɪl].[1]
Indeed, in some theories English has been described as having three levels of stress: primary, secondary, tertiary, and unstressed (or quaternary). For example, our examples would be ²coun.ter.³in.¹tel.li.gence and ¹coun.ter.³foil. However, these treatments often disagree with each other, and several respected phoneticians such as Peter Ladefoged have noted that it is possible to describe English with only one degree of stress, as long as unstressed syllables are phonemically distinguished for vowel reduction.[2]
Ladefoged et al. believe that the multiple levels posited for English, whether primary–secondary or primary–secondary–tertiary, are mere phonetic detail and not true phonemic stress. They report that often the alleged secondary stress in English is not characterized by the increase in respiratory activity normally associated with primary stress in English or with all stress in other languages. In their analysis, an English syllable may be either stressed or unstressed, and if unstressed, the vowel may be either full or reduced. This is all that is required for a phonemic treatment. In addition, the last stressed syllable in a normal prosodic unit (as in its citation form) receives additional intonational or "tonic" stress. Since a word spoken in isolation (as for example when a lexicographer determines which syllables are stressed) acquires this additional tonic stress, it may appear to be inherent in the word itself rather than derived from the utterance in which the word is spoken. (The tonic stress may also occur elsewhere than on the final stressed syllable, if the speaker uses contrasting or other prosody.)
This combination of lexical stress, phrase- or clause-final prosody, and the lexical reduction of some unstressed vowels, conspires to create the impression of multiple levels of stress. In Ladefoged's approach, our examples are transcribed phonemically as cóunterintélligence /ˈkaʊntər.ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns/, with two stressed syllables, and cóunterfoil /ˈkaʊntərfɔɪl/, with one. In citation form, or at the end of a prosodic unit (marked [‖]), extra stress appears from the utterance that is not inherent in the words themselves: cóunterintélligence [ˈkaʊntər.ɪnˈˈtɛlɪdʒəns‖] and cóunterfoil [ˈˈkaʊntərfɔɪl‖].
| Lexical stress? |
Quaternary level |
Description | Dictionary level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Primary | The final stressed syllable in a prosodic unit, which receives additional prosodic (tonic) stress. |
Primary |
| Secondary | Other lexically stressed syllables in a word. | Secondary | |
| No | Tertiary | Full unstressed vowels. | |
| Unstressed | |||
| Quaternary | Reduced vowels. |
It is perhaps because dictionaries present words in citation form that they make a primary–secondary distinction in stress. In general, tonic stress in citation form is marked as 'primary stress'; stressed syllables prior to that tonic syllable are marked as 'secondary stress', as in còunterintélligence, as in many dictionaries are any full vowels after that syllable, as in cóunterfòil. That is, many dictionaries merge some stressed ('secondary') syllables with some unstressed ('tertiary') syllables and call the result 'secondary stress'.[2] Occasionally in these dictionaries full vowels before the tonic stress may also be marked for secondary stress. Bolinger (1989)[4] notes that such dictionaries make use of the secondary-stress mark to distinguish full vowels from reduced vowels in unstressed syllables, as they may not have distinct symbols for reduced vowels.
The marking of full vowels as having secondary stress may be a partially regional (US) convention. John Wells remarks, "Some analysts (particularly Americans) argue [...] that the presence of a strong [= full] vowel is sufficient evidence that the syllable in question is stressed. In the British tradition we regard them as unstressed."[5]
To determine where the actual lexical stress is in a word, try pronouncing the word in a phrase, with other words before and after it and without any pauses between them, to eliminate the effects of tonic stress: in the còunterintèlligence commúnity, for example, one can hear secondary (that is, lexical) stress on two syllables of counterintelligence, as the primary (tonic) stress has shifted to community.
There are other languages with secondary stress in compound words that behave like English. For example, in Norwegian, the pitch accent is lost from one of the roots in a compound word, but the erstwhile tonic syllable retains the full length (long vowel or geminate consonant) of a stressed syllable.[6]
Rhythmic or syllable-weight based secondary stress is common, but generally predictable. For example, Romanian has secondary stress every other syllable, starting with the first, as long as it does not fall adjacent to the primary stress.[7] In other languages, heavy syllables may take secondary stress. However, in other languages the placement of secondary stress is not predictable, or may not be predictable for some words. This is frequently posited for Germanic languages. However, Bolinger (1989) notes that these may be cases of full vs reduced unstressed vowels being interpreted as secondary stress vs unstressed, as in English.
This is true of Dutch: generally, initial and final syllables (word boundaries) take secondary stress, then every other syllable before and after the primary stress (trochaic rhythm), as long as two stressed syllables are not adjacent and stress does not fall on /ə/. Examples are:
However, some technical words such as èn.do.crì.no.lo.gíe violate this pattern, which would predict *èn.do.cri.nò.lo.gíe; Booij (1999) suggests that because the prefix endo- is not native, secondary stress may be assigned to the first syllable of the root -crinology. There are also words where the trochaic pattern overrides boundary stress, as in pi.rà.te.ríj, gram.mà.ti.káal; unless these are due to lack of vowel reduction, they are unpredictable as stress.[8]
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