UNIT 1: Stress

The notion of stress describes the accentuation of certain parts of the word, called syllables. A syllable “always contains one loud or prominent part (almost always a vowel sound), and may have optionally consonant sounds preceding or following the vowel” (one or more) (Ashby & Maidment, 2005, p. 7). It is important to keep in mind, that by one vowel per syllable, we speak of pronounced sounds, not of individual letters. By stressing a syllable, we make it more prominent in our speech, trough a combination of increased “[...] length, loudness and pitch.” (Ashby & Maidment, 2005, p. 156).

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Stress can be crucial for understanding certain words. In English for example, words can mean something different according to their pronunciation: if the word import is stressed on the first syllable ('IMport), it is a noun, if the last syllable is stressed (im'PORT), it is a verb.

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Stress is also produced and used differently in different languages. In languages like English, there is always one stressed syllable per word. Depending on the language, stress can be fixed or variable. In so-called fixed stress languages, “[...] the position of the primary stress is the same for the vast majority of words” (Ashby & Maidment, 2005, p. 193), for example on the last syllable of each word, as in Turkish. Languages like German and English are "variable stress languages", so “[...] the primary stress is not fixed to a particular position in a word” (Ashby & Maidment, 2005, p. 200). But this does not mean that you can freely choose where to place the stress. In most cases, the stress is obligatorily on a certain syllable, depending on the word. The word ˈBIcycle for example is stressed on the first syllable, eˈNOUGH on the last syllable.

Exercise:

Divide the following words into their syllables, and circle the stressed syllable. If there are words which can have different pronunciations, indicate what the two pronunciations mean.

To see the solutions, click on "SOLUTIONS" bellow

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·    Mail

·    Here

·    Rhyme

·    Particular

·    Photograph

·    Photography

·    Export

·    Conflict

·    Context

·    Perfect

·    Present

·    Address

·    Invalid

·    Object

UNIT 2: Speech rhythm, speech tempo and intonation

Speech rhythm

The concept of speech rhythm is not easy to define. Generally, rhythm describes repeating patterns of sounds. The term is also used in music or poems, where there are repeating patterns to a beat or to a certain meter of a poem. In music, speech rhythm is very important, like for example in the genre of rap. 

Rhythm can be figured out by trying to clap in a repetitive way to match the pronunciation of a sentence. Also, time between stressed syllables in a sentence can be measured in order to see whether the time intervals between them are the same. Also, the length of individual syllables can be measured (usually in milliseconds).

Speech tempo

Speech tempo is a fairly easy concept to grasp. We all know people who talk at different a speed, fast or slow. This depends on various factors and can vary, for example, according to the person speaking, phrase length, as well as dialects and languages. We all know the stereotype of Bernese people speaking slowly, which has actually proven to be true by Leemann and Siebenhaar (2007).

When looking at speech tempo, we can either measure the articulation rate (excluding pauses) or speaking rate (including pauses). Speech tempo is measured in unit of speech per unit of time, usually syllables per second. The average speech tempo (speaking rate) of British English is about 4.416 syllables per second or 265 syllables per minute (Li, 2021).

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Intonation 

Intonation describes the varying of pitch. In languages like English and German, “[I]ntonation is used to signal how a speaker intends his or her utterances to be interpreted” (Ashby & Maidment, 2005, p. 154). This also means, that a certain sentence can express different meanings if produced with a different pattern of pitch. 

Intonation can help you structure spoken utterances, like punctuation does in written language. For example, we use rising intonation just before commas. Intonation is also used to signal the modality of a phrase, to pronounce questions, imperatives, or declaratives. For Yes-No questions, we use rising intonation at the end of the sentence, like in the question "Do you speak English?". This is especially important when the sentence is ambiguous: “The mouse got caught by the cat”, pronounced with falling intonation at the end is declarative. With rising intonation, it becomes a question. For simple statements, as well as Wh- and how questions, we use falling intonation. Imperatives, as orders with exclamation marks, are pronounced with falling intonation. Orders with rising intonation (written with full stops) are perceived as more polite.