3.2. Comparing stress in Spanish and English
Stressed
syllables receive greater prominence by means of pitch, duration and intensity.
In some languages, including English, the prominence between stressed and
unstressed syllables is further enhanced by reducing vowels (i.e. changing
vowel quality) in unstressed syllables. In this way, the difference between
stressed and unstressed syllables is even more prominent. In Spanish, on the
other hand, the difference in vowel quality between stressed and unstressed
vowels is minimal. Think of the Spanish word
banana and its English equivalent
banana. Stress in both languages falls on the penultimate syllable,
but in Spanish all three vowels are pronounced [a], while in English, the first
and third vowels are reduced to a neutral vowel called the schwa, (the phonetic
symbol for which is [ə]). Stress might also affect consonants, but again, in
Spanish the effect of stress on consonants is minimal, while in English it is
quite prominent. Think of the two t’s in the English word
title and the Spanish word
título.
In Spanish both t’s are pronounced the same, while in English the first
t (the one in the stressed syllable) is
strongly aspirated, while the second tends to be pronounced as a glottal stop
(a moment of closure).
Activity: The effect of stress in cognates
Make a list of (10-12) cognate
words like ENG potato – SP patata, and compare the position of the
stress and what effect it has on the vowels and consonants in the word. Your
list can be a good starting point for developing an activity in class, or you
can ask your students to make such a list.
You can compare your answers with ours in Section 6.
Stress and orthography
The orthographic accent mark
should not be confused with stress, that is, prosodic prominence. The aim of
the accent rules in Spanish is to unambiguously indicate the position of
lexical stress in every Spanish word. It would be very straightforward if every
word had an accent mark, however, it would not be a very economical system, so
stress is marked only on those words that do not conform to the general pattern.
The general pattern is to place stress on the penultimate syllable if the word
ends in a vowel, n or s and to stress the final syllable if
the word ends in a consonant other than n
or s. In this course, we will not
deal with orthographic stress in any further detail.
Ideas for exercises
- Ask
your students to find nouns and adjectives that don’t follow the general
pattern with regard to the position of stress (stress on the penultimate
syllable of the word if it ends in a vowel, n
or s; stress on the final syllable if
the word ends in a consonant other than n
or s).
- Ask
your students to make word lists with pairs of words which only differ in the
place of the lexical stress (e.g. bebe
vs. bebé).
- At
higher levels: What’s the difference in the pronunciation and meaning of
phrases like él vino vs. el vino? (Think of grammatical words vs.
content words; words that are never stressed; you might consider here the use
of personal pronouns in Spanish and English.)
- Make
a dictation of words with and without accent marks.