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What exactly is word stress in Spanish? | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| quesuerte Newbie Germany Joined 5184 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 15 28 July 2012 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is word stress just saying the sound louder?
habló = shout the ó a bit louder? I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between stress and pitch in Spanish. For example, the final stressed syllable of a sentence will rise in pitch in Spanish, but almost every word has its own stress. I understand that pitch is a higher voice i.e. girls' voices have a higher pitch than boys' voices, but I can't really find an explanation as to what stress is. Most books say to be "more prominent," but that is a rather subjective term. Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 15 28 July 2012 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Stress can be realized differently. In English, stressed syllables are louder, higher in pitch (unless you're using irony or are trying to threaten somebody I think), often longer, and the vowel quality changes. Most stressed vowels in English are diphthongs or glides (like 'I' [ʌɪ]), and many unstressed vowels are reduced to so-called schwas. (That's the reason why people can't hear whether dependent is written with -ent or -ant - both sound the same when unstressed and said quickly.)
You should sit down and say some longer words slowly and try to figure out which syllable is stressed, and then look it up in a dictionary that marks stress (like Merriam-Webster's online dictionary), so you get used to the concept. In Spanish, the difference is only in pitch and loudness. Unmarked stress is on the penultimate syllable, otherwise it's marked with an accent in writing. Basically, your pitch goes up and then down again on the stressed syllable, without changing vowel quality (no glides) or length. Different accents are faster or slower to reach the highest pitch on the syllable. I am under the impression that most stressed syllables carry an emphasis in loudness on the rise or highest pitch, but the preterite tense has its emphasis on the falling part at the end. But that's my own observation and may be corrected by any more proficient speaker. Listen to audio recordings and try to repeat the words just like the speaker said them and you'll figure out the stress pattern soon enough. Just using explanations isn't enough for that, even though they can help. Edited by Bao on 28 July 2012 at 5:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| quesuerte Newbie Germany Joined 5184 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 15 28 July 2012 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Therein lies my confusion. If stress equals a higher pitch,
why do my textbooks say the the final stressed syllable of a sentence must be a higher pitch? Does it not already have a higher pitch, the same as every stressed syllable? :S E.g. Tengo seis baNAnas = normal sentence pitch I'm confused between intonation pitch and word stress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 15 28 July 2012 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sentence prosody is superimposed on word stress, so yes, that's pretty much how it goes. In a normal statement, the last stressed syllable has a slightly higher pitch and the last following syllable (if there is any) drops lower than the previous unstressed syllables. Edited by Bao on 28 July 2012 at 10:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4830 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes | Message 5 of 15 29 July 2012 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Take two words in English. 'present' and 'present'.
Now, the first one is a gift. "He gave me a present on my birthday." The second one is an introduction of sorts. "I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Jenneke." If you read them both aloud then in my first example the stress is on the first 'e' and in the second example the stress is on the second 'e'. That is essentially Spanish stress in a nutshell. You don't scream or yell when stressing the second half of 'present'. The same as in Spanish. But when you pronounce them both then it is quite clear that there is a distinction on where the word is stressed. Fortunately in Spanish there are pronunciation rules and accent marks to indicate where the stress of a word goes. Edited by Kyle Corrie on 29 July 2012 at 1:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jsg Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4508 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 15 29 July 2012 at 7:26am | IP Logged | ||
Just to be clear: If a word ends in a vowel, n or s, the stress is on the penultimate (next to last) syllable. For example, toro, computadora, joven and zapatos all have their accent on the next-to-last syllable. Most words fit this category. Words that end in other letters have the stress on the last syllable. For example, hotel, hablar, madador and virtud all have the accent on the final syllable. If a word isn't pronounced according to the above two rules, an accent is placed over the vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For example, común, lápiz, médico, inglés, and ojalá all have the stress on the indicated syllable. Citation: http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishpronunciation/a/stress_ac cent.htm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5192 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 7 of 15 29 July 2012 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Other examples of words in English that can have different stress are:
attribute compact combine commune default progress It seems quite often in the case of such words with alternate stresses in English, that the noun form stresses the first syllable, and the verb form stresses the second. At any rate applying/pronouncing the stress in English isn't hugely different in Spanish, as in esta vs está. Edited by tibbles on 29 July 2012 at 9:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| quesuerte Newbie Germany Joined 5184 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 15 29 July 2012 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | ||
So, just to clarify, the pitch on the last stressed syllable is higher than it would usually be? I need to exaggerate it slightly? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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