"In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence."
The emphasis placed on a particular syllable in a word.
Phoneme: A unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word. Understanding phonemes is important in stress (phonology) because syllable stress can change the phonemic structure of a word.
Syllable: A unit of sound that consists of a vowel sound and any consonant sounds that come before or after it. Recognizing syllables and their stress patterns is essential in stress (phonology).
Word stress: The emphasis given to a syllable in a word. Word stress affects the meaning of the word and is important to understand in stress (phonology).
Stress patterns: The ways in which syllable stress is distributed in a word. Different languages have different stress patterns, and understanding them is an important part of stress (phonology).
Intonation: The rise and fall of pitch in a sentence or phrase. Intonation is closely related to stress (phonology) because it can indicate which words or syllables are stressed.
Prosody: The patterns of stress and intonation in speech. Prosody is important in stress (phonology) because it can convey additional meaning beyond the words themselves.
Accent: The way in which a person pronounces words based on their regional or linguistic background. Understanding accent is important in stress (phonology) because it can affect the stress patterns of certain words.
Minimal pairs: Two words that differ in meaning by only one phoneme. Understanding minimal pairs is important in stress (phonology) because they can help to identify how stress affects the meaning of words.
Linguistic stress: The stress patterns used in a language. Understanding linguistic stress is important in stress (phonology) because it can affect how stress is placed on syllables in specific words.
Phonological rules: A set of rules that govern how sounds are combined to form words in a language. Understanding phonological rules is important in stress (phonology) because they can affect the stress patterns of certain words.
Primary stress: Is the strongest stress in a word, given to the syllable that carries the most importance or significance.
Secondary stress: Is a weaker stress than primary stress, but stronger than an unstressed syllable. It is given to syllables that are less important than the primary stress syllable but still contribute to the rhythm of the word.
Unstressed syllables: Are not emphasized in pronunciation and are typically shorter and less prominent than stressed syllables. They are of equal intensity and do not receive any emphasis in terms of pitch or duration.
"That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as increased loudness and vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and changes in tone."
"The terms stress and accent are often used synonymously in that context but are sometimes distinguished."
"For example, when emphasis is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent, and when produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent."
"When caused by a combination of various intensified properties, it is called stress accent or dynamic accent; English uses what is called variable stress accent."
"Since stress can be realized through a wide range of phonetic properties, such as loudness, vowel length, and pitch (which are also used for other linguistic functions), it is difficult to define stress solely phonetically."
"The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress."
"Some languages have fixed stress, meaning that the stress on virtually any multisyllable word falls on a particular syllable, such as the penultimate (e.g. Polish) or the first (e.g. Finnish)."
"Other languages, like English and Russian, have lexical stress, where the position of stress in a word is not predictable in that way but lexically encoded."
"Sometimes more than one level of stress, such as primary stress and secondary stress, may be identified."
"Stress is not necessarily a feature of all languages: some, such as French and Mandarin Chinese, are sometimes analyzed as lacking lexical stress entirely."
"The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic stress."
"It includes phrasal stress (the default emphasis of certain words within phrases or clauses), and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item, a word or part of a word, that is given particular focus)."
"When emphasis is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent."
"When emphasis is produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent."
"When caused by a combination of various intensified properties, it is called stress accent or dynamic accent."
"English uses what is called variable stress accent."
"It is difficult to define stress solely phonetically."
"Some languages have fixed stress, meaning that the stress on virtually any multisyllable word falls on a particular syllable, such as the penultimate (e.g. Polish)."
"Some, such as French and Mandarin Chinese, are sometimes analyzed as lacking lexical stress entirely."