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    Diachronic aspects of stress (native words vs. loanwords)
    quickinfo

    Primary word stress in Frisian occurs in three different patterns: a) a Germanic pattern, with stress on the initial stressable syllable, b) a French pattern, with stress on the final stressable syllable, and c) a Latin pattern, with stress on the penultimate syllable (or on the antepenultimate if the penultimate in the source language is light, i.e., if it is open and contains a short vowel). These three patterns are represented in the table below. All syllables with a full vowel are stressable, whereas schwa syllables cannot be stressed. In the majority of cases, the stress pattern of loanwords depends on the source language (for exceptions, see Stress shifts in loanwords). The different stress patterns are given in the table below:

    Table 1
    Germanic pattern (initial stressable syllabe) helder /'hɛl.dər/ clear; bright befel //bə.'fɛl// command
    French pattern (final stressable syllable) kanon //kan.'non// gun, cannon parade //par.'ra.də// parade
    Latin pattern (penultimate or antepenultimate stressable syllable) kanon //'ka:.non// canon falium //'fa:.li.jəm/ valium
    extra

    The word kanon /kanon/ gun, cannon has the short vowel /a/. If this were to close the first syllable ( [(ka)]), the latter would be in conflict with the Rhyme Constraint, which requires the rhyme of a word-internal syllable to occupy two structural phonological positions. That is why /kanon/ is syllabified as [(kan)'(non)], with an ambisyllabic [n], which is both the coda of the first and the onset of the second syllable.

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    [+]Germanic pattern

    Since words of Germanic origin usually contain only one full vowel, stress always falls on the syllable containing the full vowel. This is illustrated in the table above. In helder clear; bright, only the first syllable is stressable (the second syllable contains a schwa), in befel command, only the second syllable is stressable (the first syllable contains a schwa).

    [+]French pattern

    French loanwords are stressed on the rightmost syllable that contains a full vowel. Examples are ka'non gun, cannon, pa'pier paper, lo'kaal classroom, kabi'net cabinet, ka'jút saloon, fat'soen decency and stu'dint student. Stress is penultimate in cases like pa'rade, due to the presence of unstressable schwa in the word-final syllable.

    [+]Latin pattern

    In Latin loanwords, stress can be on the penultimate or on the antepenultimate syllable – in words of three or more syllables, the penult is stressed if it is heavy, otherwise the antepenult is.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Willem Visser, Joke Weening
      Category: Frisian Phonology
      Keywords: word stressdiachrony
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
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      1.0 Willem Visser, Joke Weening December 2015
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