stressedunstressed

Stressedunstressed refers to the contrast between prominent (stressed) and less prominent (unstressed) syllables in spoken language. A stressed syllable is produced with greater acoustic prominence than other syllables in the same word or phrase, while an unstressed syllable carries relatively less prominence. Prominence is conveyed through a combination of longer duration, higher pitch, and greater loudness, though the exact cues vary across languages. Unstressed vowels often undergo reduction or weakening in many languages, especially in English.

The status of stress in a language can vary. In some languages, stress is phonemic, meaning shifting the stressed syllable can change word meaning or grammatical function. In others, stress is predictable from morphology or syllable structure and is not used to distinguish words. Stress patterns also interact with word formation and syntax; multi-syllable words may exhibit complex patterns of prominence across syllables.

Common prosodic patterns include trochaic (strong-weak) and iambic (weak-strong) feet, which describe preferred sequences of stressed and unstressed syllables in two-syllable units. As word length increases, languages may display multiple levels of prominence, with primary stress marking the strongest syllable and secondary stress providing subordinate emphasis.

Notation is often used in dictionaries and linguistic descriptions. Primary stress is frequently indicated with a symbol such as a preceding mark or the IPA symbol ˈ, and secondary stress with ˌ. Examples from English show that stress placement can affect both pronunciation and rhythm, as in pairings like record (noun) versus record (verb) or present (noun) versus present (verb).

Cross-linguistic variation exists: some languages have fixed stress positions (for example, certain languages tend to place the main stress on the first syllable), while others permit flexible, phrase- or morpheme-based stress patterns. Understanding stressed-unstressed patterns aids pronunciation, listening, poetry, and language teaching.