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Saalangal Stress rules

From:Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 12, 2001, 2:50
I've come up with a stress system for Saalangal that is for the most part
regular, but a little complex:

1. Stress falls on the penultimate in two syllable roots unless:

- The last syllable ends in: /t/, /k/, /p/: tarát, tarák, taráp

- If the first syllable is closed, and the final syllable ends in: /n/,
/l/, /s/, /N/: handán, handál, handás, handáng

- If the first syllable is closed and the final syllable ends in the
diphthongs /aj/, /ej/, /au/, /oj/: handáy, handéy, handáw, handóy

2. In roots or words three syllables long, stress generally falls on the
first syllable: kúmaga, kúmagat, kúmagay

3. In words four syllables long, the stress tends to fall on the second
syllable: mersóradang, mersóradi, gesóradang, gesóradi

4. In words longer than four  syllables, stress tends to be on the
penultimate syllable: mersoradanéka, mersoradanekráta, gesoradanéka,
gesoradanekráta

Note: the words i chose dont mean anything, theyre just there to
illustrate:).

The rules are pretty regular and easy to determine, but for people
learning it, it can be something of a bear to remember the four rules. And
sometimes there are exceptions, which I havent discovered yet. Stress
isn't used to determine meaning between words spelled the same way as in
Tagalog, for instance. But there are a few examples, see below:

If a foreign word matches that of a native word,  the foreign word's
stress will be altered to prevent confusion, even if the foreign word's
native stress fits these rules (obviously this doesnt work for a mono
syllabic word like "coke").

Natural? I don't know, but do i like those rules? Yes ;).