A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics (Studies in Linguistic ...

62 A BASIC COURSE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
with cover bearing the primary stress (S = strong or primary stress, W =
weak or secondary stress):
cover discover
S w presewedin w S
In addition to syllable and word stress, phoneticians also study sentence
stress patterns, because these affect how meanings are extracted from an
utterance. In simple English statements and questions, the main stress is normally
placed on the last word:
Sarah is Ithlian.
Alex is arriving tom6rrow.
What’s your nhe?
Where did you g6?
Simple sentences such as these can, of course, be spoken with a different
stress pattern to highlight different intentions or meanings:
Shah is Italian (not Mary).
Alkx is arriving tomorrow (not Fred).
If words of the same kind (all nouns, all adjectives, etc.) occur in a series,
then each one is stressed, showing in effect that they have equal importance in
the sentence:
Shah, Alkx, and Dinny are Italian.
Would you like c6ffee or tka?
Another important aspect of pronunciation is tone. Tone is defined as the
relative pitch with which a syllable, a word, phrase, or sentence is pronounced.