Re: stress

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 15:56:34 -0500, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
> Poster:       # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...>
> Subject:      stress
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm now trying to find a good way to create the stress for my conlang
>
> But I'd want it to be natural AND regular
>
> Making it unpredictable would force me to write or to remember it for the
> whole words as in English
>
Spanish, has a pretty regular stress system, and it's naturalistic.

> And I want it to seem natural to not have to think every times "ho no that's
> not that one"
>
Well, what does sound natural to you? What doesn't?

> So I'd like to ask: Does a regular stress has to depend of its position from
> the end of the word? Or from it's beginning (I think like Finnish)?
>
> Is it possible to make it depends from its position from the beggining or
> the end of the root? or always on the first, second, third prefix/suffix? or
> the last one?
I think you can look at it either way, but the labels for stress
position work from the end of the word.

>
> May it depends of the fact that it is a verb, a noun, an adverb..?
It's quite possible to use stress to indicate role. I mean, if you can
have Esperanto which uses vowels to indicate role, why not stress?


>
> There's a way I've thought of, say me if it sounds natural or if it's too
> weird
>
Really, I don't think you can get "too weird" or "unnatural" with
stress. Well, maybe if everything were stressed on exactly the same
syllable position then yeah.

Tagalog uses stress to differentiat words.

áso - dog
asó - smoke

Kaibígan - friend
Kaíbigan - lover (I think)


> I stress the first syllable of the word's root with one exception: when the
> first syllable's consonant isn't aspirated and that there is one or more
> others in the word, the first of them is stressed
>
> The stressed syllable has an higher pitch and is a little longer.
>
> So:
>
> (on verbs, the prefix is always separated by a "-")
>
> we-khate /we'k_hate/ = to love
> ze-bana /we'bana/ = to kill
> ze-gwedze /ze'g_wedz)e/ = to read
> ze-thatane /ze't_hatane/ = to make (someone) born -> (for a doctor or a
> mother...)
>
> khate /'khate/ = love
> bana /'bana/ = death
> thatane /t_hatane/ = life
>
> but
>
> na-tatha /nata't_ha/ = ~there is/are -> a little like the Spanish "Hay" (it
> is always conjugated at impersonnal without pronoun)
> mathe /ma't_he/ = way, manner
>
> In sentences, the verb conjugates in voice with an infix ("ha", "ho", or
> "hi") placed after the first syllable of the root. With that stress method,
> I'm sure that it will never be stressed because it's neither the first nor
> an aspirated syllable
>
> Also, when two pronouns are next from each other, the first will have it's
> first syllable stressed, so they will be pronounced has a word
>
> That way it is regular and easy to remember but does that sounds natural?
>
Here's the stress pattern in Ayhan:

- Stress falls on the ultimate syllable if the root word ends in a
consonant, except m, n, ng (nasals) or diphthong,  and does not
contain other dipthongs: Kamád, kamáy

- Stress falls on the penultimate if the word ends in a vowel, nasal
(m, n, ng), the word contains two diphtongs, or the penultimate is a
diphthong: kibána, káydey, kibáyna,

- Stress falls on the antepenultimate if the antepenultimate is a
diphthong, and the word ends in a consonant: káybanaw, séyhangat

- If a word is stressed differently than the above rules, when the
word is written, stress is indicated, otherwise not.

I'm debating whether or not to keep the rule about roots keeping their
stress depending upon whether they're affixed or not.

I haven't gotten into specifics, but those are the primary guidelines.





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