Phonetics and Phonology – Overview of Stress, Rhythm, and Intonation

Introduction

Stress, Rhythm, and Intonation create the “music” of a language and are as important as the
sounds of the language. Stress, Rhythm, and Intonation help tell the listener what is important in
the sentence and how the speaker feels about it.

Syllables

In English, a syllable has as its center a vowel, which can be preceded and/or followed by
consonants. The word man /mӕn/ has one syllable; paper /’peIpәr/ has two; national /’nӕ∫әnәl/
has three; philosophy /fI’lasәfi/ has four. Think of the syllables in a word as “beats” in the word.
Use your fingers to tap syllables of man, pa-per, na-tio-nal, and phi-lo-so-phy.

Practice

1. Say these words slowly and count the syllables. Write the number of syllables in the blank.
1. Occur_____ 2. Management ______ 3. Liked______ 4. Negotiation______

The Stressed Syllable

When you say a word, one syllable should sound longer and louder than the others. This is the
stressed syllable. In English, the length of the stressed syllable is very important: stressed syllables
are almost always longer than unstressed syllables; sometimes they are also louder.

Practice

2. Find the transcription for the words and mark the heavily stressed syllable. Then read
the words out loud.
1. Photographic /__________/ 2. Government /_________/ 3. Freedom /________/
3. Musical /______/ 5. Occurrence /_________/ 6. Tomato /_________/ 7.
Nationality /_________/ 8. Historical /_________/

Syllable Stress and Pitch

Stressed syllables are often pronounced on a higher pitch (a higher note) than unstressed
syllables.