LINGUIST List 14.449

Fri Feb 14 2003

Sum: Stressed Syllables

Editor for this issue: Steve Moran <stevelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Stefan Th. Gries, Sum: stressed syllables

Dear colleagues

About two weeks ago I posted a query to the list (Linguist 14.239),
asking for help concerning (i) the pronunciation (the stress pattern)
of some fairly infrequent words and (ii) sources providing stress
patterns of similarly infrequent words. I received a variety of
replies concerning both questions. Some people sent me their
intuitions as to the stress patterns of the words mentioned in my
query - others even took the time to look up (some of) these words in
dictionaries and sent me their results. Interestingly, the responses
exhibit an unexpectedly large degree of variability both within the
intuition replies and within the intuition vs. dictionary
replies. Therefore, I have decided to sumnmarise the replies
separately so that those who are interested get an idea of the nature
of the variation.

In the following two lists, apostrophes precede syllables bearing
primary stress. Each apostrophe stands for one judgement,
demonstrating the degree to which particular judgements are supported.

INTUITIONS
- --------
'''al'''karsin
'''''''andradite
bu'''''''''''toxide
de'hydroge'''''''natum
''ec'''''dysis
e'lectro'pho''''''''''resis
em'bour''''geoisement
i''''mi'''pramine
lu'te'''o'''steron
'''''o'xime
'''''''''pal'mitate
''''''''peridine
'py'''''''''''rethrin

In the following list of dictionary-based replies, the dictionaries
from which the information is quoted are mentioned in parentheses

DICTIONARIES
- ----------
al''karsin (OED)
'''an''dradite (OED, Collins English Dict Mill ed., American Heritage Dict.)
butoxide
dehydrogenatum
'''''ecdysis (OED, Collins English Dict Mill ed., American Heritage Dict.)
e'lectropho'''resis (Longman pronouncing dict., OED: stress at the fron of
the word), American Heritage Dict. (stress at the back opf the word)
em'bour'geoisement (Longman pronouncing dict., American Heritage Dict.:
frontal stress)
i'''''mi'ramine (OED, Collins English Dict Mill ed., American Heritage
Dict.)
luteosteron
'''oxime (OED, Longman pronouncing dict.)
'''palmitate (American Heritage Dict.)
peridine
py''''rethrin (Longman pronouncing dict., American Heritage Dict.)

Finally, the following sources (some of which have already been quoted
above) have been pointed out to me. http://www.oed.com
http://www.m-w.com Webster Unabridged Dictionary Kenyon & Knott
Pronouncing Dictionary Daniel Jones Pronouncing Dictionary American
Heritage Dict. (CD 4th ed.) John C. Wells's Longman Pronouncing
Dictionary

Thanks a lot to the following colleagues who provided me with the
above replies (in alphabetical order): Julian Bradfield, Mike Cahill,
Charles E. Cairns, Laura Callahan, Ronald Cosper, Michael
A. Covington, Kenneth Dickson, Peter Finn, Maria Gouskova, Jason
Lilley, Winston Lin, Tivoli Majors, Mike Maxwell, Karen Milligan,
Bruce Moren, Geoff Nathan, Helen Tebble, Maziar Doustdar
Toosarvandani, Max Wheeler, Ghil`ad Zuckermann, Kevin.

Stefan Th. Gries
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IFKI, Southern Denmark University
http://people.freenet.de/Stefan_Th_Gries
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