Stress Accent

Stress Accent

 

(also called dynamic or expiratory accent), a type of accent in which a designated element is intensified by increasing muscular tension and expelling the breath more forcefully. Stress accent may be produced in two degrees, as in Russian; here the terms stressed and unstressed elements are used, depending on whether the given element is stressed. Stress accent may also be produced in three degrees, as in German, in which case the terms unstressed, weakly stressed, and strongly stressed elements are used, depending on whether the stress is primary or secondary.

Stress accent, unlike musical and quantitative accent, is based on intensity. However, in many languages the criterion of intensity is accompanied by other criteria. In Russian, for example, accent is based both on intensity and quantity. This is why Russians perceive the long vowels of foreign languages as stressed vowels. [23–1091–]