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Communication: Spoken English | 199

/spj-/ spurious
/str-/ strain, strike
/stj-/ stupid, student
/skr-/ screen, scratch
/skl-/ sclerosis

There can be a maximum of four consonants in the final clusters.
For example:

/-mpts/ prompts
/-mpst/ glimpsed
/-lpts/ sculpts
/-lfθs/ twelfths
/-ksts/ texts

Word Accent
We have just examined the nature and structure of the syllable. Let us now
see what a word and word accent are.
A word may be defined as a linguistic entity that consists of one or more
syllables. A word with more than one syllable is not just a simple addition
of syllables that constitute it. It combines them into a certain relationship
of interdependence i.e., the syllables so combined are uttered with varying
degree of prominence.
The accentual pattern of English words is fixed as well as free. It is fixed in the
sense that the main accent always falls on a particular syllable of any given word
and free in the sense the main accent is not tied up to a particular syllable for all
the words in the language. For example, the stress is always on the first syllable in
‘Czech’, the last syllable in French, and the penultimate syllable in Polish.
In words having more than one syllable there is one syllable or occasion-
ally two that stand out more prominently than the others. Word accent is
therefore a relative degree of prominence with which the different syllables
of a word are pronounced.
Therefore monosyllabic words pronounced in isolation (i.e., not in con-
nected speech) can be said to have ‘no accent’ that is why accent of monosyl-
labic words is not marked in dictionaries.
Prominence may be due to stress (greater breath force) higher pitch,
length or quality of the vowel sound.
We have just seen that one or two syllables are more prominent than the
others in longer words. But both the syllables do not show the same degree
of prominence. One of them is more prominent than the other. It is said to be
carrying the primary accent. The other syllable that shows less prominence than

Bhatnagar_Chapter 09.indd 199 2011-06-23 7:52:57 PM
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