Mellékhangsúlyos

Mellékhangsúlyos is a Hungarian term that translates to "secondary stress" or "subordinate stress." It refers to a level of stress in a word that is less prominent than the primary stress but still audible and distinguishable. In Hungarian, words typically have a primary stress on the first syllable. However, in longer words, or in words with certain suffixes, a secondary stress may appear on subsequent syllables. This secondary stress helps to maintain the rhythmic flow of speech and can be important for intelligibility.

The presence and placement of mellékhangsúlyos can vary depending on the specific word, its etymology, and its grammatical function. For example, compound words often exhibit secondary stress. When a word has multiple syllables, the primary stress usually falls on the initial syllable, and then subsequent syllables might receive a weaker, secondary stress. This contrasts with languages that might have more varied stress patterns or no predictable stress at all. Understanding mellékhangsúlyos is crucial for learners of Hungarian to achieve natural-sounding pronunciation and for linguists studying the phonological structure of the language.