Phonology: Stress Assignment in Standard American English 1.2

This exercise is signed to help you determine which syllables are stressed, and which are not, in Standard American English (SAE). Remember that stress is contrastive in SAE, such that, shifting it from one syllable to another will affect the meaning of the word. Stressed syllables are generally longer and louder during articulation. For each exercise item, select the syllable that is stressed. Syllable boundaries are denoted by a period, as seen in the following example. Each syllable is numbered.

NoNote, that is many polysyllabic words, two or more syllables can be stressed. This exercise focuses on primary stress, i.e., the syllable that is the loudest and longest during articulation. Also, remember that in working with features of sounds, we always look at ‘natural’ speech, or the manner in which you would articulate the words while speaking casually.