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Further demystifying word stress

Augustin Simo Bobda

English Today / Volume 13 / Issue 04 / October 1997, pp 48 - 55

DOI: 10.1017/S0266078400010026, Published online: 17 October 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0266078400010026

How to cite this article: Augustin Simo Bobda (1997). Further demystifying word stress. English Today, 13, pp 48-55doi:10.1017/S0266078400010026

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Further

demystifyingword stress

AUGUSTIN SIMO BOBDA

A reply to and development of David Taylor's

'Demystifying w ord stress' (KT48, Oct 96)

THE EXTREME complexity of English wordstress, which is a well-known problem forteachers and students, is paralleled by an abun-dant body of literature on the subject. Themore we write, the more there is to writeabout. Taylor's contribution to £748 is noexception. The stress rules which he proposes,

and which he considers simple (unlike those ofprevious phoneticians and phonologists) and"accessible to teachers and learners and usablein the classroom" (p. 46) , are based mostly onword endings. I share most of Taylor's views,but here highlight other hints for stress place-ment which I consider useful for both teacherand learner, stress some im portant exceptions,and highlight an even greater predictability ofword stress in new Englishes; finally I showthat history itself is demystifying English wordstress by regularizing it.

Revisiting some of Taylor's rules

Four points in the article call for comments.The first is the relationship between vowelquality and stress. Taylor (p. 51) states, rightly,that vowel quality can be predicted from thestress pattern of a word. But he also claims, lesshelpfully, that the correct stress pattern can beachieved from paying attention to the pattern

of full and reduced vowels within a word(p . 52). I contend that the "pattern of full andreduced vowels" is induced by stress, and notvice-versa. Many a learner who knows that cal-

endar is /kaslmda -lands/ will know that it is

stressed as 'calendar; if it were [kalends], itwould be stressed as ca'lendar.

The second po int in Taylor's paper that callsfor clarification is the accentual property ofsome "endings" (as the au tho r prefers to call, inpreference to "suffixes"). First of all, Taylor(p. 50) mistakenly classifies "-ish" as an ending

that attracts stress to the immediately preced-ing syllable; instead "-ish" is a typical exampleof a weak (or stress-neutral) ending, as in'devil+ish -» 'devilish; 'twenty+ish -» 'twenty-ish; 'woman+ish -> 'womanish. Secondly, stillin connection with strong endings whose list isgiven on p. 50 , it is probably helpful to make thefollowing groupings for some of the endings:

(a ) -ia, -iac, -ial, -ian, -ient, -ience, -ious (Tay-lor's list to which we could add -ius, -iant,

AUGUSTIN SIMO BOBDA is Associate Professor ofEnglish Language at the Advanced School ofEducation (Ecole Normale Superieure) of theUniversity of Yaounde I, Cameroon. He holds a

Doctorat d'Etat in English Language from the sameuniversity, and several ELT certificates fromCameroon, Britain and America. He has publishedwidely on English phonolog y, non-native Englishusage, ELT, and sociolinguistics. His books include'An Introduction to Spoken English' (University ofLagos Press 1993), and 'Aspects of Cameroon

English Phonology' (Berne: Peter Lang 1994). Thelatter book is a generative study of a "New English"where the author proposes the concept of "trilateralprocess" as a new theoretical approac h for the studyof such Englishes.

4 8 English Today 52, Vol. 13 , No. 4 (October 1997). Printed in the United Kingdom © 1997 Cambridge University Press

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-iance, etc.) = i V(C) = i plus Vowel, optionallyplus Consonant.

(b) -eate, -eous (Taylor's list to which we canadd -ea, -eum, -eus, etc. = e V(C), which isphonologically the same as (a) since the initial"e" is also pronounced / i / as in venereal

/ v i ' n i an a l / , erroneous / I ' r aun ias / .(c) -ual, -uant, -uance, -uate (Taylor's list to

which we can add -ua, -uous, -uum, etc.) =uV(C) .

These groupings, which I have seen in myown teaching to be quite within the reach ofthe learner, give him or her a greater power ofgeneralization and prediction.

In an account of stress placement, it seemsmore convenient and more illuminating toanalyse all together the relevant suffixes and

the preceding stem-forming "i", "e" and "u",since all the sequences have the same stressbehaviour. McArthur (1992:1002), to whomTaylor (p. 49) refers, does not follow this prin-ciple, since he treats the -ian of Canadian, -ialof torrential, -eal of laryngeal, -ual of residualon the one hand, and -a l of colonial, industrial,and -ous of censorious, laborious, on the otherhand, differently. He treats -ian, -ial, -eal, and-ual in the first case as suffixes which causestress to fall on the preceding syllable and -al,-ous in the second case as suffixes which causestress to fall two syllables before. I believe herethat the -a l of colonial and industrial is exactlythe same as that of torrential, and should notbe analysed separately. In relation to stressplacement, the -ous of censorious should also beanalysed with the preceding "i" as -ious, andseen to have the same stress behaviour as -ian,-ial, etc.

The third point concerns the stress behaviourof the ending -al. Taylor (p. 50) observes that it

causes stress to fall on the "immediately pre-ceding syllable" if the word en ds with tw o con-sona nt let ters. Taylor thus gives the exam ple ofthe stress pattern of horizontal, accidental,experi'mental, monu'men tal, governmental,where the ending -al is stron g, as different from'regional, 'national, 'natural, pro'cedural, con-sti'tutional, where -a l is weak. But what about'adenoid+al -» ade'noidal, 'anecdote+al -»anec'dotal, 'commune+al -» com'munal? Theending -a l is preceded by a single consonantletter in each case , and yet it shifts stress to the

preceding syllable. A more dependable expla-nation of the factors determining the stressbehaviour of -a l is therefore necessary. Itinvolves the distinction between strong and

weak clusters, a distinction which can beexploited in many othe r situations.

A strong cluster consists of any of the follow-ing endings:• tense vowel (diphthong or tense monoph-

thong) ; e.g. betray

• tens e vowel plus con sona nt; e.g. anecd ote/aenekdaut/

• vowel plus two or more consonants; e.g.accident, experiment, monument

A we ak c luster consists of any of the following:• l ax v o w e l ; e.g. Africa, nature / n e i t / a / ,

procedure^ /p ra ' s i :d33 /• lax vowel plus conso nant; e.g. pastor^

/pa :s t3£r ) / , pivot/pivat/, palate /paetat/.

After this distinction, we can now safely

observe tha t -al is (a) strong after a stron g clus-ter and (b) weak after a weak cluster; (a)explains, not only the stress patt ern of horizon-tal, accidental, etc. but also that of ade'noidal,anec'dotal, and com'munal, while (b) takes careof that of 'natural, 'regional, and other wordslike pro'cedural, 'pastoral, 'pivotal.

Other endings which are sensitive to the dis-tinction between strong and weak clusters are-ative and -atory. This distinction explains thedifference in stress pattern between argumen-

tative, dem onstrative, illustrative and 'qualita-tive, 'federative, au'thoritative; and betweencompensatory, con'fiscatory and e'liminatory,'respiratory, etc.

The fourth remark on Taylor's paper is thathis useful listing of endings and their stressbehaviour could have been more exhaustive. Inhis treatment of stress-determining endings,why does Taylor limit himself to endings thatshift stress to the preceding syllable? Oneclearly understands space limitations. But itwould have been quite helpful for him to saysomething about the other categories of end-ings: those which attract stress towards them-selves, those which trigger stress two syllablesbackwards, etc. This gap is filled in Panels 1and 2.

Other hints for stress placeme nt

Word endings analysed above are probably themost notable clues for word stress placement.But it seems fitting to say a few wor ds on othe rfactors. The lexico-syntactic factor, whichaccounts for the difference between 'contrast(N) and con'trast (V), 'import (N) and im'port(V), etc. is well-known. The semantic factor,

FURTHER DEMYSTIFYING WORD STRESS 4 9





Endings attractingstress towardsthemselves

-ade: cas'cade, masca'rade, pa'rade-air(e): affair, debon'na ir, million'naire,

question'naire

-aise: ma'laise, marseil'laise, Polo'naise-ane: mun'dane, hu'mane, ultramon'tane-ar(re): biz'zare, ci'gar, gui'tar, hus'sar-ean: Au'gean , chal'dean, Or'phea n, pro'tean ,

Achillean, Carri'bean, Euro'pean ,

Galil'lean, Jaco'bean, Sopho'clean-ee: absen'tee, addres'see, employe e, nomi'nee,

refe'ree-een: can'teen

-eer, ier: ate'lier, chande'lier, engi'neer,fusi'lier, muske'teer

-elle: baga'telle, ga'zelle, cour'telle, Mo'selle-esce, -isce: acqui'esce, effer'vesce, juve'nesce-escent, -iscent, -escence, etc: acquiescent,

effer'vescence

-ese: Canto'nese,journ a'lese, Senega'lese-esque: ara'besque, gro'tesque, pictu'resque-ette: cas'sette, ciga'rette, co'quette,

kitche'nette, la'yette

-ique: an'tique, b e'zique, u'nique, phy'sique-ise: che'mise, expertise, va'lise

-ids: bron'chitis, hepa'titis, menin'gitis-oo, oe: bam'boo, ca'noe, ta'boo-oea: ap'noea, dysp'noea, dia'rrhoea,

pyo'rrhoea, gono'rrhea-oon: balloon, pon'toon, ty'coon-osis: diag'nosis, neu'rosis, prog'nosis-Vche: car'touche, pa'nache, pas'tiche.

Endings triggeringstress two syllablesbackwards

- cide: 'genocide, 'homicide, in'fanticide,

para'siticide

- gogy: 'andragogy, 'demagogy, 'pedagogy- gon: 'decagon, 'octagon, 'hexagon

- mony: 'alimony, 'matrimon y, 'ceremon y,

'testimony

- tude: 'amplitude, 'attitude, 'multitude,

similitude- (often) -y: biology, as'tronomy, philosophy

- ate, -ise in polysyllabic verbs: 'indicate,'duplicate, 'recognise, 'colonise.

which explains the difference between in'valid

(not valid) and invalid (disabled), com'mittee

(a body of persons) and commit'tee (a person

committed) is less well-known, but affects rel-

atively few words and may not need to be

overemphasized in ESL and EFL. The length of

a word also counts sometimes. It can be heldresponsible for the difference between 'frag-

ment+ary -» 'fragmentary and 'element+ary -*

ele'mentary (-ary shifts stress to the preceding

syllable of a long word ending in a consonant

cluster). But here again, only a handful of

words owe their stress pattern to their length,

and this parameter may not need to be

stressed.

But the origin of a word is a much more

important hint. Teachers and students proba-

bly need to be told that words of old Englishorigin and old loans usually have a typical

Anglo-Saxon stress pattern which is backward,

while more recent loans, which are often rec-

ognizable, retain the stress pattern of the donor

languages. Thus, French loans are usually

stressed on the final syllable. The words shown

in Panel 1 to have self-stressed suffixes (e.g.

masca'rade, affair, ma'laise, ciga'rette) are

examples. Many nouns which have final stress

like corresponding verbs (e.g. ap'plause,

con'sent, suc'cess) are further examples. Finalexamples include the nouns and adjectives in

Panel 3.

Loans from other Romance languages

(Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese) are mostly

French loan nouns and

adjectives with finalstress

Nouns: a'byss, arti'san, blas'phem e,ca'nal,ca'price, ca'ress, cham'pagn e, cuisine, dis'ciple,e'clipse, e'lite, ellipse, fa'tigue, finance, giraffe,grimace , ha'rangue, ho'tel, in'trigue, la'trine,ma'chine, margue'rite, ma'nure, ma'rine,mo'rale, mo'rass, partisan, pa'trol, p erson'nel,po'lice, pres'tige, ra'vine, re'gime, rou'tine,sa'lute, sar'dine.

Adjectives: a'cute, as'tute, au'gust (ctr

'August), au'stere, ba'nal, dis'creet, diverse,e'rect, ex'treme, hu'man e, Irate, ma'rine,

minute, mo'rose, o'blique, o'paque, o'vert,partisan, po'lite, ro'bust, se'cure, se'date,se'vere, sin'cere, suc'cinct, su'perb, su'preme,ur'bane, ver'bose.

5 0 ENGLISH TODAY 52 October 1997





stressed on the penultimate syllable as seen inPanel 4.

Loans from Italian, Spanish, and Portugueseare usua lly recognizable by their final ope n syl-lables, usually in a and o as in arena, aroma,banana; concierto, em bargo, volcano.

Learners usually bind the above loans withfinal or penultimate stress to the Anglo-Saxonbackward stress. For example, Cameroonianspeakers usually produce 'caprice, 'elite, 'acute,'astute, 'discreet, 'arena, 'assassin, 'embargo,'umbrella.

Som e important exceptions tostress rules based on endings

Taylor (p. 46) rightly advocates simplification

in the discussion of English stress rules forteachers and learners. This implies that weshould not dwell on exceptions. But I suggesttha t two kinds of exceptions be discussed. First,exceptions that involve a small number ofwords, which the learner's memory can easilymanage. Second, exceptions which involvevery common words whose mispronunciationwill be noticeably detrimental to his/herspeech. Examples of such exceptions are pro-vided in Panel 5. They all involve one or two

words, which are quite comm on in m ost cases.

The predictability of stress in NewEnglishes

Research on non-native English stress has longbeen vitiated by the pronouncements of theearly writers. Most of these writers (e.g.Spencer 1971:26) described the rhythm ofNew Englishes as syllable-timed and their stresspattern as isochronous. These labels, especially

the latter, according to many subsequentresearchers, meant that all the syllables of aword in New Englishes strictly have equalstress. This conception has been relayed almostin chorus for the last three decades or so, andhas become another myth which must be"demystified". In New Englishes, just as innative English, one syllable in a polysyllabicword is always more prominent than the oth-ers. This phenomenon should not at all be con-fused with the fact that Non-native Englishes

usually retain s trong vowels , even inunstressed syllables. Indeed, although all vow-els are strong, for example, in CameroonEnglish (henceforth CamE) labourer [lebora],banana [banana], these words are unambigu-

Penultimate stressingin loans from otherRomance languages

a'cumen, ap'parel, a'rena, ar'mada, a'roma,as'sassin, a'sylum, ba'nana , bo'nanza, ca'nary,

cae'sura, ca'thedral, clan'destine, con'cierto,

coritralto, di'ploma, e'lectrode, e'lectron,

em'bargo , equilibrium, ho'rizon, lieu'tenant,

lum'bago, maca'roni, mos'quito, pa'laver,

py'jamas, quintessence, safari, sa'liva,

spa'ghetti, so'nata, syllepsis, s/nopsis,

tar'paulin, to'mato, tor'nado, tor'pedo, tu'xedo,

ulti'matum, um'brella, u'tensil, ver'batim,

virtu'oso, volcano.

ously stressed as (CamE) 'labourer, ba'nana,

not 'la'bou'rer,'ba'na'na.

One other fact concerning non-native Eng-lishes that needs to be stressed is that, as withnative Englishes, their stress pattern is pre-dictable. And here again, endings are a veryuseful hint. For example, Panel 6 shows arange of endings which hav e a systematic stressprop erty in CamE. The key to the abbreviationsis the same as in Panel 5.

Note that in CamE, as in other related vari-eties, the stress properties of word endingstend to be more systematic than in nativeEnglish, tha t is, have fewer exc eptions, if any atall. For example, the stress patterns of RPneces'sarily, 'admirable, Tanza 'nia, 'spiritual,'television (cf Panel 5) are generalized in CamEto 'necessarily, admirable, Tan'zania, spiritual,television.

A more comprehensive discussion of stressrules in CamE and related varieties can be

found in Simo Bobda (1994), Simo Bobda(forthcoming in World Englishes), Simo Bobdaand Chumbow (1995).

The gradual regularization of Englishword stress

With time, English word stress tends to bemore regular. Some regularization patternsem erge very clearly. First of all, in many words,stress tends to be re-adjusted to the antepenul-

timate syllable which is the place of predilec-tion of English stress in word s of three or m oresyllables, according to Delattre (1965:97) andothers. This process affects words in -able,-metre, -y, and miscellaneous cases as seen in

FURTHER DEMYSTIFYING WORD STRESS 51





S o m e important excep tions to rules ba sed on endings \involving on e or two w ords

End

-ly- ism

-age

- or- able

- ia

- ual

- ion

• uary

- mony

- iscent

- osis

Key: end =

SR

SNSN

SNSNSN after afree base

PS1PS1

PS1PS1

PS2SS

SS

Examples

'happily, 'competently'tribalism, bi'lingualism

advantage, 'percentage

'indicator, professor'conquerable, con'testable

Indo'nesia, Ro'mania

ha'bitual, residual

con'cision, intro'duction

'February, o'bituary

'ceremony, 'patrimony

de'hiscent, remi'niscent

diagnosis, symbi'osis

ending; SR = stress rule; SN = stress-neutral; PS1

PS2 = stress two syllables backwards; SS = self-stressed

\

Exceptions

mili'tarily, neces'sarilyca'tholicism, infantilism

con'cubinage, 'equipage

e'xecutor fctr 'execute)'admirable fctr ad'mire)

Tanza'nia

'spiritual

'television

'antiquary, 'reliquary

he'gemony

con'cupiscent

meta'morphosis

= stress on preceding syllable;

The stre ss property of som e end ings in Cameroon \English

E n d i n g

- arive- atory

- utory

- ature- tide

- itive- land- man

- oir(e)- phone- grapher

-age

- an

- ary

-a l

- ism- is t

- ou s

- "i" in prefixes-"ie/y" in girls ' forenames-"n" in girls ' forenames

\

Rule

SSSSSSSSSS

SSSSSS

SSSSSSPS1PS1PS1PS1PS1PS1PS1SS

SSSS

Examples

cumu lative, federative, ten'tative, argum entative

discriminatory, explanatory, preparatory

sa'lutory, sta'tutory, contributory

candi'dature, legi'dature, mini'ature

homi'cide, infanti'cide

comp e'titive, pu'nitive, repe'titivehinter'land, Netherlands, Switzerlandbar'man , fire'man, police'man

me'moir, reper'toire, reser'voirfranco'phone, saxo'phone, tele'phonegeo'grapher, lexico'grapher, photo'grapher

concu'binage, pa'rentage, vaga'bondagecosmopolitan, dio'cesan, metropolitan

le'gendary, pla'netary, voca'bulary

elec'toral, pas'toral, pi'votal

tri'balism, capi'talism, materi'alisma'theist, dra'matist, sci'entist

moun'tainous, polygamous, volu'minousde'mi-god, mi'ni-cab, se'mi-final

Be'ckie, Vi'cky, Mag 'gy, N el'lyHe'len, Su'san, Vivi'an, Magda'lene

Panel 7. Conservative forms (CF) precede newforms 1 and 2 (NF1 and NF2), representing adescending degree of acceptability.

This readjustm ent of stress to the antepenu l-timate syllable is not new in English. It has

been going on since the 18th century, as seenin the data in Panel 8 reported by StannardAllen (1965) and Crystal (1984).

The second case of regularization concernsdisyllabic loan n oun s from F rench whose stress

52 ENGLISH TODAY 52 October 1997





Re-arrangement of stress to

WORD

-able:

amicableapplicable

comparable

despicable

demonstrableformidable

hospitablelamentable

preferable

refutable

reparable

reputable

transferable

-metre/-litre:

kilometrecentimetre

centilitre

mililitre

-y:

controversy

candidacy

exigency

magistracydemagogypedagogyarticulatory

mandatory

respiratory

Miscellaneous cases

aristocrat

nomenclature

cigaretteclandestine

exhibit (noun)

artisanpartisan

CF

'amicable'applicable

'comparable

'despicable

'demonstrableformidable

'hospitable'lamentable

'preferable'refutable

'reparable

'reputable

'transferable

'kilometre

'centimetre

'centilitre

'mililitre

'controversy

'candidacy

'exigency

'magistracy'demagogy'pedagogyar'ticulatory

'mandatory

'respiratory

'aristocrat

'nomenclature

ciga'retteclandestine

ex'hibit

arti'sanparti'san

the antepenultimate \ ^

N F l

-'mic--'plic-

-'par-

-'pic-

-'monstr-

-'mid-

-'pit-

-'ment-

•fer-

-'fuf-'par-

-'put-

•fer-

-'lom--'tim-

-'til-

-'lit-

-'tro-

—

-'xig-

———-'lat-

-'dat-

-'rat-

-'rist-

-'mencl-

—'clan-—

-'art-

-'part-

NF2

—

————

———

———

—

——

—

-'did-

—

-'gistr--'mag-

-'dag-

——

—

—

'cig-—'ex-—

—

has been moving from the final syllable to the

initial syllable to fit the backward stress pattern

of Anglo-Saxon words. Examples are provided

in Panel 9.

Aitchison (1981:97) reports that this back-

ward movement of stress in disyllabic nouns,

which started in the 16th century with onlythree words, had in 1981 already affected 150

words and was continuing to affect other

words.

The third type involves the regularization of

the accentual property of affixes. For example,

the -ade of decade is becoming SS as in blo'ckade,

cha'rade; the -ual of spiritual is becoming PS1;

the -ly of necessarily and militarily is becoming

SN; the -ute of-bute verbs (e.g. distribute, con-

tribute, attribute) is becoming PS2 as in 'consti-

tute, 'institute etc. All this is shown in Panel 10.A further case of regularization concerns

cases where the stress of the derivative is re-

adjusted to that of the base. We have above

examples of this pattern with com'parable,






Historical cases ofantepenultimate

Older Form

ab'domenan'chovy

balcony

cha'racter

con'template

con'trarypre'cedence

re'condite

New Form

'abdomen'anchovy

'balcony

'character

'contemplate

'contrary'precedence

'recondite

re-adjustment of stress to the

Older Form

re'plicava'gary

(Stannard Allen

e'tiquette

illustrate

'prosperityre'venue

(Crystal 1984

New Form

'replica'vagary

1965:176)

'etiquette

'illustrate

prosperity'revenue

87)

X\

BackwardWORD

address

ideadefect

dispute

examresearch

resource

rampage

movementCF

ad'dress

Idea

defect

dis'pute

ex'amre'searchre'source

ram'page

of stressN F l

—

'dispute

——

—

'rampage

in disyllabic loan nouns \ .NF 2

'add-

'idea

'defect

—'exam'research'resource

C ases of regularization ofa suffix

SUFFIX

-ade:-ual:-ical:

-ly:

-ute:

WORD

decade

spiritualcervical

militarilynecessarily

attribute (vb)contribute

distribute

CF

'decade'spiritual

cer'vical

militarilynece'ssarily

attributecon'tribute

dis'tribute

the accentual

N Fl

—

'cervical—

———

—

property of

NF2

de'cade

spiritual

—

'mil-'nec-

'attr-

'con-

'distr-

X\

preferable, re'parable (after com'pare, prefer,

re'pair); 'militarily, 'necessarily (after 'military,'necessary); to which we can add sub'sidence

(for the conservative form 'subsidence), aftersub'side.

The new forms provided throughout theanalysis are taken from Crystal (1988:60),Wells (1982, 1990, 1994), Rosewarne (1984,1994a, b), Coggle (1993), and Bauer (1994).

Conclusion

The foregoing analysis, after Taylor's paper,thus suggests even more ways in which wordstress is predic table, in na tive English as well as

in New Englishes, and is becoming even moreso with time. I believe that most of the mythsurrounding English word stress in EFL andESL circles is either due to the inability of theteacher himself/herself to understand it, or to

54 ENGLISH TODAY 52 October 1997




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his/her readiness to underestimate the mentalcapacity of the learner, who will understandthe working of this aspect of English phonol-ogy, if it is properly introduced. I have givenmany of the foregoing explanations in myadvanced classes, and they have generally been

understood. ED

References

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Bauer, L. 1994 . Watching English Change: AnIntroduction to the Study of Linguistic Change inStandard Englishes in the Twentieth Century. London:Longman.

Coggle, P. 1993. Do You Speak Estuary? London:Bloomsbury.

Crystal, D. 1984. Who Cares About Usage?

Harmondsworth: Penguin.—. 1988. The English Language. Harmondsworth:Penguin.

Delattre, P. 1965 . Comparing the Phonetic Features ofEnglish, French and Spanish. Heidelberg: JuliusGross Verlag.

McArthur, T. 1992. "Suffix." In The Oxford Companionto the English Language. Oxford: University Press,p. 1002.

Rosewarne, D. 1984. "Estuary English." In the TimesEducational Supplement, 19 October 19 84.

—. 1994a. "Estuary English: tomorrow's RP?" I nEnglish Today 37, pp. 3-8.

—. 1994b. "Pronouncing Estuary English." inEnglishToday 40 , pp. 3-6.

Simo Bobda, A. 1994. Aspects of Cameroon English

Phonology. Berne: Peter Lang.—. (Forthcoming in World Englishes') "Atoye's "WordStress in Nigerian English' Revisited."

— & B.S. Chumbow. 1995 . "Some Ch aracteristicFeatures of Cameroon English Phonology." Paperpresented at the English in Africa Conference,Grahamstown, South Africa, 1 1-14 Sep tem ber1995. To appear in the Proceedings.

Stannard Allen, W. 1965. Living English Speech.London: Longman.

Spencer, J., ed. 1971. The English Language in WestAfrica. London: Longman.

Taylor, D.S. 1996. "Demystifying word stress." In

English Today 48, pp. 46-52.Wells, J.C. 1982. Accents of English. 3 Vols, Cam bridge:University Press.

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Usefully reinforcing the central issue

David Taylor replies:

I am grateful to the editor for the chance torespond to Professor Simo Bobda's very inter-esting article. I do not really disagree wit h any-thing he says. Indeed I welcome his valuablecontribution to the debate. I would like to seehis article as complementing mine, especiallywhere New Englishes are concerned. This is anarea which I, perhaps pusillanimously, deliber-

ately chose not to deal with. Nevertheless, Iwould make one or two comments.

Simo Bobda refers to "my" list of endings. Iwish I could take so much credit, but I followvery closely Guierre's pioneering work in thisfield. I und ersta nd there is a later edition of hisbook, but so far I have been unable to get holdof a copy. Inciden tally, I follow Guierre in usingthe term ending, which, in view of the title ofmy article, I believe is marginally less mystify-ing for most users of English.

I agree that the pattern of full and reducedvowels is induce d by stress, and not vice versa.The point I was trying to make on p. 52 wassimply tha t if learn ers get the vowels right, the y

are more likely to get the stress right. Theessential point is that in the varieties of EnglishI was considering, stress and vowel qua lity aremutually dependent.

Simo Bobda says that I mistakenly classify-ish as an ending that attracts stress to theimmediately preceding syllable. But there aretwo such suffixes in English. The one I was

referring to is a verbal suffix, as in astonish,diminish, admonish, etc. The one Simo Bob darefers to is an adjectival ending, which doesindeed behave as a weak ending.

As for the grouping of the endings, again Ilargely follow Guierre, on the grounds thatalthough it may be technically correct toanalyse some of them together as Simo Bobdadoes (e.g. -ial and -al), in my experience usersof English do not necessarily think of them inthat way. From a pedagogical point of v ie w it

may well be simpler to present them sep ara tely .The point about the -a l ending is well m ad e,

and I agree that a more satisfactory accountcan be achieved by using the concept of strong


bobda - further demystifying word stress

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