Suprasegmentals

In the book, you read about word stress, speech rhythm and intonation. Some concepts may be hard to grasp when you just read about them. In this section, you find some examples that illustrate suprasegmental phenomena.

Word Stress in Nominal Compounds

Listen to the following pairs. The first word is always a nominal compound and is hence pronounced with initial stress. The second part are two separate words (adjective plus noun) pronounced with level stress.

• blackboard – black board
• blu-ray – blue ray
• wetsuit – wet suit
• greenhouse – green house
• darkroom – dark room
• English teacher (teaches English) – English teacher (comes from England)

Stress-shift to Avoid Stress-Clash

The following words have word stress on the last syllable. When a stressed syllable follows, there would be two adjacent stressed syllables. Note how speakers shift stress to an ealier syllable to avoid such as stress-clash.

• Japanese – Japanese boy
• fifteen – fifteen, main street
• Berlin – Berlin wall

Rhythmic Clipping

The following three words all start with the same stressed syllable. Afterwards, there is no, one or two unstressed syllables following. Note how speakers shorten the stressed syllable the more unstressed syllables follow.

• man
• manage
• management
  

Tones

 On the words yes and university

• • low fall
  • high fall
  • rise-fall

• • low rise
  • high rise
  • fall-rise
  • level