Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 August 14

= August 14 =

Stress in 3-syllable words
For a 3-syllable word with primary stress on the second syllable, neither of the other syllables has secondary stress.

However, for a 3-syllable word with primary stress on the first syllable, there's usually secondary stress on the third syllable (some such words have secondary stress on the second syllable, but most such words have secondary stress on the third syllable.)

Is it easy for an English word to have 3 syllables with primary stress on the first syllable and no secondary stress at all?? Georgia guy (talk) 23:35, 14 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Yes. The word syllable is one such word, and, in most non-U.S. varieties, the word primary is another. Those are words contained in your very question. --Theurgist (talk) 00:36, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Syllable has third-syllable-secondary stress (pronounced similar to "bull") and "primary" has second-syllable-secondary stress. Georgia guy (talk) 00:39, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Depends on the dialect. Standard British dialects would have no stress on the second two syllables of primary.  -- Jayron 32 03:09, 15 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Georgia guy -- It's only in certain U.S. dialects where there's a partial merger between the "checked" high back rounded vowel and the Close central unrounded vowel that the word "Bull" could be said to be pronounced similarly to the third syllable of "Syllable". In almost all English dialects outside the U.S. (and in earlier historical stages of U.S. English dialects), the two vowels were completely different.  And the third syllable of the word "Syllable" does not have secondary stress in any normal unemphatic pronunciation.  Also, the lack of secondary stress on many "-ary" and "-ory" endings is a well-known difference betweeen UK and US English (surely you've at least heard the British pronunciation of "laboratory"?). AnonMoos (talk) 03:32, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * In British English, most any vowel followed by "ry" at a word's end is treated as if that vowel isn't there, or almost isn't: library as libe-ree, blueberry as blue-bree, lavatory as lava-tree, Salisbury as sals-bree, etc. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:06, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I always remind people who pronounce "respiratory" as rə-SPI-ra-taw-ree or even rə-SPI-ra-tree, that it's actually RE-sprə-tree, which rhymes with presbytery (PRE-spə-tree). --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  06:23, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Wiktionary gives both stress patterns, as do major dictionaries. --Lambiam 08:10, 16 August 2020 (UTC)
 * You know what never grows old? People arguing that the particular dialect they learned, purely through the accident of where they happened to be born, is the only correct way to speak.  -- Jayron 32 18:18, 16 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks. As I fast approach a certain chronological milestone, it does me a world of good to have the agelessness of my outlook confirmed and acknowledged. :) --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:29, 16 August 2020 (UTC)