rõhulangust

Rõhulangust, also known as stress in English, is a phenomenon in linguistics where one syllable in a word is pronounced with greater emphasis than the others. This emphasis can vary in terms of loudness, pitch, and duration. Stress is a crucial aspect of pronunciation and can significantly affect the meaning of a word. For example, in English, the words "record" and "record" are homophones, meaning they sound the same but have different meanings due to stress placement. In the first word, the stress is on the first syllable ("REcord"), while in the second, it is on the second syllable ("reCORD").

Stress can be either fixed or free. Fixed stress occurs when the stress pattern is predictable and consistent across all words in a language. For instance, in German, stress typically falls on the first syllable of a word. Free stress, on the other hand, allows for more flexibility in stress placement, as seen in English, where stress can fall on different syllables depending on the word's meaning or origin.

In some languages, stress can even determine the grammatical gender of a word. For example, in Russian, nouns that end in a consonant are masculine if they have stress on the last syllable and feminine if they have stress on a preceding syllable.

Rõhulangust plays a vital role in language learning and comprehension, as it helps native speakers and learners alike understand the nuances of pronunciation and word meaning.