unstressed

Unstressed is a linguistic term used to describe syllables that do not bear primary prominence in a word or phrase. In phonology, stress is a property of syllables; a word may contain one syllable with primary stress and several unstressed syllables. Unstressed syllables are typically shorter, quieter, and may have reduced vowel quality compared with stressed syllables.

In many languages, unstressed vowels undergo reduction, becoming a neutral or weak vowel such as a schwa. This is common in English. For example, in the word about, the first syllable is usually unstressed and pronounced as /ə/; in banana, the first and third syllables are unstressed. The word today often has primary stress on the second syllable, with the first syllable commonly realized as /tə/.

Not all languages reduce vowels in unstressed syllables to the same extent. Some languages retain full vowel quality in unstressed syllables, while others exhibit more pronounced reduction. Stress patterns can also vary: some languages have fixed stress positions, others have variable stress that depends on morphology or syllable structure.

In phonetic transcription and linguistic notation, primary stress is marked with a symbol such as ˈ before the stressed syllable, while secondary stress is marked with ˌ. Unstressed syllables typically carry no stress mark. The study of unstressed syllables intersects with prosody, rhythm, and phonotactics, and it influences pronunciation, intelligibility, and the perceptual rhythm of speech.