WORD STRESS IN FINNISH

(2) Primary stress is always initial. All the action is in secondary stress. (3) The general pattern (binarity): Stress every other syllable after primary stress. (a) ká.las.tè.let ‘you are fishing’ (b) ká.las.tè.le.mì.nen ‘fishing’ (c) íl.moit.tàu.tu.mì.nen ‘registering’ (d) ú.jos.tè.le.màt.to.mùu.des.tàn.sa ‘from his lack of shyness’ (4) The special pattern (ternarity): Skip a light syllable if the syllable after that is heavy unless the heavy syllable is final in which case skipping is optional. (a) ká.las.te.lèm.me ‘we are fishing’ (b) íl.moit.tàu.tu.mi.sès.ta ‘from registering’ (c) vói.mis.te.lùt.te.le.màs.ta ‘from causing to do gymnastics’ (d) rá.vin.tò.lat ~ rá.vin.to.làt ‘restaurants’ (5) Analysis (first approximation): Binary trochaic feet from left to right; main stress on the leftmost foot; heavy syllables must be stressed. (6) Problems: (a) Plenty of variation and apparent exceptions to the secondary stress rules. (b) Secondary stress is hard to hear or pin down by phonometric methods. (7) Why should we care? Secondary stress plays a crucial role in the rest of Finnis