Suprasegmental features
Submitted by Sandra J S(roll no: 17)
The phonemes we have so far considered can be
described as segmental phonemes since they produce
speech segments. They also contain additional speech
features such as stress, pitch, length etc., affecting
speech sounds which may hence be called as sound
attributes or suprasegmentals. Suprasegmentals
signal phonetic phenomena affecting higher units
of sound like words, phrases and sentences and not
single segments, the phonemes.
●word stress:
All the syllables in a polysyllabic word in English are
not articulated with the same force. Some are uttered
with greater force than the others. Stress may be
described as the degree of force with which a sound
or syllable is pronounced. Every syllable is uttered with
a certain degree of force and the one uttered with the
greatest degree of force is called stressed or accented
syllable. We usually distinguish only one or two
stresses,primary and secondary. The stressed syllable
us said to receive secondary stress or accent. We
mark the stressed syllable with a short veryical stroke
on top at the beginning of the syllable.
There are no rules for determining which
which syllable in a word is to be stressed. In english
words the accent id both free and fixed. It is free in the
Submitted by Sandra J S(roll no: 17)
The phonemes we have so far considered can be
described as segmental phonemes since they produce
speech segments. They also contain additional speech
features such as stress, pitch, length etc., affecting
speech sounds which may hence be called as sound
attributes or suprasegmentals. Suprasegmentals
signal phonetic phenomena affecting higher units
of sound like words, phrases and sentences and not
single segments, the phonemes.
●word stress:
All the syllables in a polysyllabic word in English are
not articulated with the same force. Some are uttered
with greater force than the others. Stress may be
described as the degree of force with which a sound
or syllable is pronounced. Every syllable is uttered with
a certain degree of force and the one uttered with the
greatest degree of force is called stressed or accented
syllable. We usually distinguish only one or two
stresses,primary and secondary. The stressed syllable
us said to receive secondary stress or accent. We
mark the stressed syllable with a short veryical stroke
on top at the beginning of the syllable.
There are no rules for determining which
which syllable in a word is to be stressed. In english
words the accent id both free and fixed. It is free in the
