INTRODUCTION TO SYLLABLE

SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

According to Wikipedia [The Free Encyclopedia], the word ‘Syllable’ is an Anglo-Norman variation of Old French sillabe, from Latin syllaba, from Koine Greek syllabḗ (Greek pronunciation: [sylːabɛ̌ː])  means "what is taken together", referring to letters that are taken together to make a single sound.

A syllable is a basic unit of speech studied on both the phonetic and phonological levels of analysis. No matter how easy it can be for people and even for children to count the number of syllables in a sequence in their native language, still there are no universally agreed upon phonetic definitions of what a syllable is. Phonetically syllables “are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after that Centre (…) there will be a greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound” (ROACH, 2000: 70). In the monosyllable (one-syllable word) cat/kæt/, the vowel /æ/ is the “Centre” at which little obstruction takes place, whereas we have complete obstruction to the airflow for the surrounding plosives /k/ and /t/.

Whereas LAVER (1994: 114) defines the phonological syllable as “a complex unit made up of nuclear and marginal elements”. Nuclear elements are the vowels or syllabic segments; marginal elements are the consonants or non-syllabic segments. In the syllable paint/peɪnt/, the diphthong /eɪ/ is the nuclear element, while initial consonant /p/ and the final cluster /nt/ are marginal elements. According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Fourth edition, by JACK C. RICHARDS and RICHARD SCHMIDT, in which the term ‘syllable’ is defined as:

“A unit of speech consisting minimally of one vowel and maximally of a vowel preceded by a consonant or consonant cluster and followed by a consonant or consonant cluster. For example, the English word introductions consist of four syllables: in-tro-duc-tions...”

And according to DAVID CRYSTAL who defines ‘syllable’ in his ‘A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th Edition as:

“A unit of pronunciation typically larger than a single sound and smaller than a word. A word may be pronounced ‘syllable at a time’, as in ne-ver-the-less…..”

Then, the syllable is also defined by ASHBY and MAIDMENT (2005: 7):

 “One pulse of speech. It always contains one loud or prominent part (almost always a vowel sound), and may optionally have consonant sounds preceding or following the vowel.”

A word that consists of a single syllable (like English dog) is called a monosyllable (and is said to be monosyllabic). Similar terms include disyllable (and disyllabic; also bi-syllable and bisyllabic) for a word of two syllables; trisyllable (and trisyllabic) for a word of three syllables; and polysyllable (and polysyllabic), which may refer either to a word of more than three syllables or to any word of more than one syllable so, it is also called four syllables.

First Syllable

Here are examples of words with a single syllable:
pen /pen/
man /mæn/
pig /pɪɡ/
cup /kʌp/
hat /hæt/
In English, a vowel sound can be made of more the one vowel letter.
So the following words have a single syllable as well:
feet /fiːt/
moon /muːn/
cake /keɪk/
have /həv/
break /breɪk/
bought /bɔːt/
All of these words contain only one vowel sound, and therefore a single syllable.

Second syllable

A word can have more than one syllable. The following words are examples of words with two syllables. Here are examples of words with 2 syllables. The different syllables are shown on the right, and they are separated by space.

garden:  gar  den

hotel:  ho  tel

consist:  con  sist

object:  ob  ject

focus:  fo  cus

Third syllable

Examples of words with three syllables:

September:  sep  tem  ber

department:  de  part  ment

telephone:  te  le  phone

camera:  ca  mer  a

Saturday:  sa  tur  day

hamburger:  hum  bur  ger

vitamin:  vi  ta  min

Fourth syllable

Examples of words with four syllables:

kindergarten:                   kin  der  gar  ten

information:                     in  for  ma  tion

January:                              ja  nu  ar  y

American:                          A  mer  i  can

discovery:                          di  sco  ver  y

Syllables:-

i. Most syllables have a single vowel plus zero or more consonants (occasional syllables have a syllabic consonant rather than a vowel).

ii. No syllable has more than one vowel. Vowel-like sequences in a single syllable are interpreted as diphthongs or semi-vowel plus vowel sequences.

iii. Depending upon language-specific rules, syllables have certain numbers of consonants before and after the vowel.

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY, The Syllable: Introduction by FELICITY COX, JONATHAN HARRINGTON and ROBERT MANNELL

In English, a syllable consists of a phoneme or a sequence of phonemes. If the syllable receives word stress it can be associated with meaning and form what is usually called a word. No word in English can consist of anything less than a syllable and no syllable can consist of anything less than a vowel. There are not many examples of monosyllabic words consisting of only a vowel in English. However, one has /a:/ are , / ɔː/ or, awe, /aɪ/ eye , I or ay(e), /əʊ/ owe , etc. It will be nice to show that given the appropriate intonation, these words could form a sentence. However, there is no such example in English. Latin offers a good example of a sentence formed of a single word formed itself of a single syllable which consists of a vowel only: /i/, i which means “Go!”

Syllables like me, to or no have an onset and a nucleus, but no coda. They are known as ‘open’ syllables. The most common open syllable is the CV syllable. a) Open syllables. When a coda is present, as in the syllables up, cup, at or), ham (CVC), I (V), do (CV), not (CVC), like (CVC), them (CVC), Sam (CVC), I (V), am (VC) is shown in the accompanying diagram.

V	"I"	/ɑe/
CV	"me"	/miː/
CCV	"spy"	/spɑe/
CCCV	"spray"	/spræe/

The syllable can be structured hierarchically into the following components:- In this example, the English word "plant" consists of a single CCVCC syllable. This syllable has been broken up into its onset (any consonants preceding the vowel) and its rhyme (all phonemes from the vowel to the end of the syllable).

The rhyme has been further divided into the nucleus, which in the vast majority of syllables is a vowel (the exceptions are syllabic consonants) and the coda, which are any consonants following the nucleus. Some other examples:

flounce:	onset = /fl/ rhyme     =  /aʊns/ nucleus = /aʊ/ coda =               /ns/
free:	onset /fr/ rhyme = /iː/ nucleus = /iː/ coda zero
each:	onset zero rhyme = /iːt͡ʃ/ nucleus = /iː/ coda =               /t͡ʃ/

The Rhyme

The rhyme is the vowel plus any following consonants.

'plant'. Syllable is composed of an Onset = /pl/ and a Rhyme = /ænt/
(the rhyme is obligatory = the head of the syllable)

There is phonological evidence of at least two kinds to suggest that the vowel forms a unit (the rhyme) with the following consonants

•    restrictions on phoneme combinations
•    sound change

Sequences of segments in language are organised into syllables based on the sonority principle. Syllables may be either weak or strong depending on their prominence relative to other syllables in an utterance. Prominence is a product of duration, loudness, vowel quality and pitch change. A syllable contains an onset and a rhyme made up of a peak and coda. The peak is the most sonorous sound in the string and is usually a vowel. Syllables are organised according to the sonority principle with most sonorous components at the centre and least sonorous components at the syllable margins. Syllables join together sequentially to form feet. A foot is a rhythmical unit usually containing two syllables, one weak and one strong (the head). English is a left-dominant language where the left-most syllable of a foot is usually strong and the following syllable(s) are weak. Feet can be monosyllabic eg "dog" (s), disyllabic (sw) eg  "city" or ternary (sww) eg "oxygen". Longer words are constructed from combinations of these three-foot types.

Words are made up of feet. A word can have one or more feet. If a word has a single foot its strong will have primary word stress in citation form. If a word has more than one foot, the strong syllable of one of the feet will have primary stress and the strong syllable of the other feet will have secondary stress. The choice of syllable for stress attachment will depend on the individual rules of the language but some languages such as English are quantity sensitive in that the number of elements in the rhyme help to determine which syllable will be stressed.  If a rhyme has a short vowel + consonant or a long vowel the rhyme is said to be heavy. If the rhyme has just a short vowel, the rhyme is said to be light. In English, non-final syllables with heavy rhymes prefer to be strong. However, the origin of a word and also its morphology are important factors in determining stress placement in English.

Both the onset and the coda can consist of more than one consonant, also known as a consonant cluster. The combination /st/ is a consonant cluster (CC) used as onset in the word stop, and as a coda in the word post. There are many CC onset combinations permitted in English phonotactics, as in black, bread, trick, twin, flat and throw. Note that liquids (/l/, /r/) and a glide (/w/) are being used in second position. English can actually have larger onset clusters, as a hat, they are called ‘closed’ syllables. The most common closed syllable is the CVC syllable. b) Closed syllables

VC	"am"	/æm/
VCC	"ant"	/ænt/
VCCC	"ants"	/ænts/
CVC	"man"	/mæn/
CVCC	"bond"	/bɔnd/
CVCCC	"bands"	/bændz/
CVCCCC	"sixths"	/sɪksθs/
CCVC	"brag"	/bræɡ/
CCVCC	"brags"	/bræɡz/
CCVCCC	"plants"	/plænts/
CCCVC	"spring"	/sprɪŋ/
CCCVCC	"springs"	/sprɪŋz/
CCCVCCC	"splints"	/splɪnts/

The basic structure of the kind of syllable found in English words like green (CCVC), eggs (VCC), and (VCC in the words stress and splat, consisting of three initial consonants (CCC). The phonotactics of these larger onset consonant clusters is not too difficult to describe. The first consonant must always be /s/, followed by one of the voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) and then one of these liquids or glides (/l/, /r/, /w/). One can check if this description is adequate for the combinations in splash, spring, strong, scream and square. The largest onset consonant cluster can consist of three elements. In this case, the first one is necessarily /s/: /s C C nucleus/ (where C stands for “consonant”).

What’s the evidence that a CV sequence is a phonological unit?

• Almost all languages have CVCV or CV words.
• If a language has CCV words, it also has CV words.
• Hardly any language has V or VC words without CV ones. One of the rare exceptions to this is the Arrandic group of Aboriginal languages
• The first systematic utterances of children are usually of this form regardless of language type.

Internal Structure of the Syllable

• Each syllable consists of three parts:

a. ONSET: segments preceding sonority peak

b. NUCLEUS: segments in the sonority peak

c. CODA: segments following the sonority peak

• The nucleus & the coda together are called the RHYME (or RIME)

/ˈpɑrtrəʤ/ partridge

σ σ

eh eh

Onset Rhyme Onset Rhyme

| 2 2 2

| Nuc Coda | | Nuc Coda

| | | | | | |

p ɑ r t r ə ʤ

/ˈskʌlpɝ/ sculpture

σ σ

eh 2

Onset Rhyme Onset Rhyme

2 2 | |

| | Nuc Coda | Nuc

| | | 2 | |

s k ʌ l p ʧ ɝ

A syllable which has a coda is called closed.

A syllable which has no coda is called open.

A syllable which has no onset is called onsets.

If a constituent contains more than one segment it is called complex.

Basic Syllabification Rules

1. Nucleus Rule.

Assign nucleus to each sonority peak.

2. Onset Rule.

Adjoin a un syllabified segment to the following nucleus if any.

3. Complex Onset Rule.

Adjoin a un syllabified segment a to following onset segment b, provided that a is less sonorous than b. Continue doing this with as many segments as possible.

Note: English has a special rule which allows /s/ to be adjoined to a following /p t k f/ even though there is no rise in sonority. Spanish does not have this exception.

4. Coda Rule.

Adjoin an un syllabified segment to a preceding nucleus, if any.

5. Complex Coda Rule.

Adjoin an unsyllabified segment a to a preceding coda segment b, provided that a is less sonorous than b. Continue doing this with as many segments as possible.

p ɑ r t r ə ʤ s k ʌ l p ʧ ɝ start

p{ɑ}r t r{ə} ʤ s k{ʌ} l p ʧ{ɝ} nuclei

{p ɑ}r t{r ə} ʤ s{k ʌ} l p {ʧ ɝ} onsets

{p ɑ}r {t r ə} ʤ {s k ʌ} l p {ʧ ɝ} complex onsets

{p ɑ r}{t r ə ʤ} {s k ʌ l}p {ʧ ɝ} codas

{p ɑ r}{t r ə ʤ} {s k ʌ l p}{ʧ ɝ} complex codas

Consonant Clusters and Syllable

In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups’ /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant clusters in the word splits. Some linguists [who?] argue that the term can only be properly applied to those consonant clusters that occur within one syllable. Others contend that the concept is more useful when it includes consonant sequences across syllable boundaries. According to the former definition, the longest consonant clusters in the word extra would be /ks/ and /tr/,[1] whereas the latter allows /kstr/.

Consonant clusters are groups of two or more consonant sounds in a row, as in spot, strong, desk, desks, or sister. It is important to remember that one talks about groups of consonant sounds, not consonant letters. These are not always the same thing. For example, ship and sing each have groups of two consonant letters, but each group represents only one sound (sh=/ʃ/ and ng=/ŋ/). On the other hand, the letter x as in six represents a consonant cluster of two sounds: /ks/. Consonant clusters in English can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of words. There are restrictions on how many consonants can occur in a particular position, and which consonants can occur together. For example, /sk/ as in sky, /pl/ as in play, and /spr/ as in spring are all possible consonant combinations at the beginning of a word in English, but /sd/, /fp/, and /zpr/ are not. There just are not any words that start with those combinations of sounds.

The word, the syllable in English can begin with a vowel, with one, two or three consonants. No word in English begins with more than three consonants (ROACH 2002: 71), thus the maximum number of segments in the word-initial consonant cluster is three. At the beginning of English words (syllables), there are 55 two-consonant clusters. In many cases, the first element is /s/ and the second consonant is approximant /l, r, w, j/ ((ROACH 2002: 73); DUANMU 2009: 160).

a.    Initial CC clusters in English

Starting with oral plosive: pr, pl, pj, pw, pf, ps, pʃ, br, bl, bj, tr, tw, tj, dr, dj, dw, kr, kl, kw, kj, km, kn, kv, gr, gl, gw (26)

Starting with nasal plosive: nj, mj, mw (3)

Starting with fricative: fl, fr, fj, vj, vw, θr, θw, θj, st, sp, sk, sl, sw, sn, sm, sf, sj, sr, sv, zl, ʃr, ʃm, ʃn, ʃp, ʃw, hj (26)

Starting with approximant: -

Starting with affricate: -

The number of the initial three-consonant clusters in English is quite limited, there are 9 of them.

b.    Initial CCC clusters in English:

All starting with /s/: spl, spr, spj, str, stj, skl, skr, skw, skj.

In DUANMU’S view the initial /s/ can be excluded and all onset clusters either form a complex sound (they are produced with different articulator, DUANMU 2009: 43 – 44) or they are predictable by morphology as real or potential affixes.

 The word (syllable) in English can end with a vowel, with one, two, three or four consonants (ROACH 2002: 73). The maximum number of consonants in the final consonant cluster is four. There are 55 final two-consonant clusters in English. They usually end with /s, z, t, d, θ/ which represent separate morphemes (ROACH 2002: 73); /s, z/ are the sound forms of ending -(e)s, and /t, d/ stand for ending -(e)d.

Final CC cluster in English

Starting with oral plosive: pθ, pt, ps, bd, bz, tθ, ts, dz, kθ, kt, ks, gd, gz (13)

Starting with nasal plosive: mp, mf, mt, md, mz, nθ, nt, nd, ns, nz, nʃ, nʃ, ŋθ, ŋt, ŋd, ŋz, ŋk, ŋg (18)

Starting with fricative: fθ, ft, fs, vd, vz, θs, δd, δz, sp, st, sk, zd, ʃt, ʃd (14)

Starting with approximant: lp, lf, lθ, lt, ld, ls, lz, lk (8)

Starting with affricate: ʃt, ʃd (2)

Here are some examples of words ending in two-consonant clusters:

help, felt, old, milk, shelf, curb, art, cord, mark, bump, ant, hand, tense, ranch, sink, else, bulge, course, march, arm, barn, girl, wasp, trust, ask, soft, act, tax, fourth

The final three-consonant clusters are quite numerous too, there are 40 of them. They usually end with /s, z, t, d/ which, as already mentioned, can easily be accounted for by morphology since they represent separate morphemes.

Final CCC cluster in English

Starting with oral plosive: pθs, pts, pst, tθs, tst, kθs, kts, kst (8)

Starting with nasal plosive: mps, mft, mfs, mts, mst, nts, ndz, nʃt, nʃd, ŋts, ŋst (11) Starting with fricative: fθs, fθl, fts, sts (4)

Starting with approximant: lmd, lmz, lpt, lps, lbd, lbz, lft, lvd, lθs, lnd, lnz, ldz, lʃt, lʃd, lʃt, lks, lkt (17)

Starting with affricate: -

Here are examples of words ending in three-consonant clusters:

text, sixth, exempt, waltz, world, glimpse, quartz, against

The final four-consonants clusters in English (7) are usually formed by the three-consonant cluster not containing final /s, z, t, d/ as separate morphemes and the sound form of the suffixes -(e)s  and -(e)d.

Final CCCC cluster in English

Starting with oral plosive: ksθs, ksts (2)

Starting with nasal plosive: mpts, ntst (2)

Starting with fricative: -

Starting with approximant: lfθs, ltst, lkts (3)

Starting with affricate: -

Some words end in four-consonant clusters because a grammatical ending has been added:

texts, sixths, exempt, waltzed, worlds, glimpsed.

The survey of the possible onset and coda clusters in English shows that in the case of three-consonant clusters the phonotactic possibilities of the English phonemes are higher at the end of the syllable (word). Although the number of two-consonant clusters is identical in the word-initial (syllable onset) and word-final (syllable coda) position (55), three-consonant clusters are rare in onsets (9) and frequent in codas (40), and four consonant clusters occur only in codas (7). However, on the basis of the CVX theory, all coda clusters can be explained by morphology as real or potential affixes or they form a complex sound (DUANMU 2009: 171 – 181).

STRESS in Syllable

The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented (see the example of the word ‘Education’). In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word, or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. This emphasis is typically caused by such properties as increased loudness and vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and changes in pitch. The terms stress and accent are often used synonymously in this context, but they are sometimes distinguished, with the accent being more strictly sound-based (auditory). For example, when the emphasis is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent, and when produced through length alone, it is called a quantitative accent. When caused by a combination of various intensified properties, it is called stress accent or dynamic accent; English uses what is called variable stress accent.

Stress is defined differently by different authors. B.A. BOGORODITSKY, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. JONES defined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. H. SWEET also stated that stress is connected with the force of breath. According to A.C. GIMSON, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.

The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress or lexical stress. Some languages have fixed stress, meaning that the stress on virtually any multi-syllable word falls on a particular syllable, such as the first or the penultimate. Other languages, like English, have variable stress, where the position of stress in a word is not predictable in that way. Sometimes more than one level of stress, such as primary stress and secondary stress, may be identified. However, some languages, such as French and Mandarin, are sometimes analyzed as lacking lexical stress entirely.

The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic stress. This is one of the three components of prosody, along with rhythm and intonation. It includes phrasal stress (the default emphasis of certain words within phrases or clauses), and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item − a word, or occasionally just part of a word − that is given particular focus).

Word Stress

When a word has more than one syllable, not all syllables are pronounced with the same degree of force. The syllable which is pronounced with greater force is called the stressed syllable. One can also call it the accented syllable. "Accent" in this case means "emphasis”. When speaking, it is important to put the stress on the correct syllable. Otherwise, it would sound unnatural, and might even be difficult to understand!

Here are some examples of the word stress of some common words (the stress part is bold):

water:          wa  ter
people:        peo  ple
television:  tel  e  vi  sion
together:    to  geth  er
potato:         po  ta  to
before:         before
begin:           be  gin

Languages are also differentiated according to the place of word stress. The traditional classification of languages concerning place of stress in a word is into those with a fixed stress and those with a free stress. In languages with a fixed stress, the occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable in a polysyllabic word. For instance, in French, the stress falls on the last syllable of the word (if pronounced in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is fixed on the first syllable, in Polish on the one but the last syllable. In languages with a free stress, its place is not confined to a specific position in the word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc. The free placement of stress is exemplified in the English and Russian languages, e.g. English: 'appetite - be'ginning - ba'lloon; Russian: озеро - погода - молоко.

The American scholars B. BLOCH and G. TRAGER find four contrastive degrees of word stress, namely: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak stresses. Other American linguists also distinguish four degrees of word stress but term them: primary stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress and weak stress. The difference between the secondary and tertiary stresses is very subtle and seems subjective. The criteria for their difference are very vague. The second pretonic syllables of such words as libe'ration, recog'nition are marked by secondary stress in BrE, in AmE, they are said to have tertiary stress. In AmE tertiary stress also affects the suffixes -ory, -ary, -ony of nouns and the suffixes –ate, -ize, -y of verbs, which are considered unstressed in BrE, e.g. 'territory, 'ceremony, 'dictionary; 'demonstrate, 'organize, 'simplify. British linguists do not always deny the existence of tertiary stress as a tendency to use a tertiary stress on a post-tonic syllable in RP is also traced.

There are two views on the matter. Some (e.g. D.JONES [84], R.KINGDON [89], V.VASSILYEV [110]) consider that there are three degrees of word stress in English: primary (or strong stress), secondary (or partial stress) and weak (the so—called "unstressed" syllables have weak stress). Secondary stress is chiefly needed to define the stress pattern of words containing four or more syllables, and compound words. E.g. "examination", "qualification", 'Tiair—jdresser". All these degrees of stress are linguistically relevant as there are words in English the meanings of which depend upon the occurrence of either of the three degrees in their stress patterns. E.g. "import — import", '^certification — certification".

But auditory analysis shows that there are certain positions in the stress patterns of English words where the vowel generally remains unobscured and its duration is considerable, though the syllable it occurs in does not actually bear primary or secondary stress. This can be clearly seen in verbs ending in "-ate", "—ize", "—y" (e.g. "elevate", "recognize", "occupy") and in such words as "portray", "canteen", "austere". Besides, this can also be observed in GA nouns ending in "-ary", "-ory", "-ony" (e.g., "dictionary", "territory", "ceremony").

On this account some American linguists (G.TRAGER) distinguish four degrees of word stress:

                   i.            Primary stress (as in "cupboard"), to indicate that a syllable has primary stress we write / ˈ / before it.

                ii.            Secondary stress (as in "discrimination"), to indicate that a syllable has secondary stress we write /ˌ / before it.

             iii.            Tertiary stress / "V (as in "analyse"),

             iv.            Weak stress / ^v/ (as in "cupboard", but very often the weakly stressed syllable is left unmarked).

American phoneticians consider that secondary stress generally occurs before the primary stress (as in "examination"), while tertiary stress occurs after the primary stress (as in "handbook", "specialize"). Though the second view seems to be more exact, the distinction between secondary and tertiary degrees of stress is too subtle to be noticed by an untrained ear. Linguistically, tertiary word stress can be taken for a variant of secondary word stress, as there are no words in English the meanings of which depend on whether their stress pattern is characterized by either secondary or tertiary stress. That is why the stress pattern of English words may be defined as a cor­relation of 3 degrees of stress.

Word stress in a language performs three functions:

                   i.            Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a word does not exist without the word stress Thus the word stress performs the constitutive function. Sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into units organized by word stress into words.

                ii.            Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. This function of word stress is known as identification (or recognition). Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual pattern of words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal understanding.

             iii.            Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions, e.g. 'import — im'port, 'billow — below.

Conclusion

English pronunciation depends on stress to a great deal. In order to become a powerful communicator of English, one must learn all the rules of stress mentioned earlier. English is a language that borrowed words from 8000 languages of the world. All rules regarding the stress patterns of these languages are impossible to learn however if one learns some basic rules one can improve a lot. So learning of stress leads us to better communication.