Intro to Word Stress: American English Pronunciation

If you've seen many of my videos,

如果你曾看過我一些影片

you've probably heard me refer to a syllable as being stressed or accented.

那你可能已聽我提過一個要被重讀或強調的音節

嗯，這什麼意思呢？

Well, what does that mean?

在美語中，句子當中的某些字要重讀

In American English, certain words have stress within a sentence,

and certain syllables have stress within a word.

以及單字當中的某些音節要發重音

And it is this stress that allows our ears to understand the meaning

就是這個「重音」，讓我們的耳朵聽懂意思

and also to pick up the important parts of the sentence.

也可得知句子的重要內容

Let's take for example the word 'about'. 'About' has two syllables, one is stressed.

我們就以單字「about」為例

「About」有 2 個音節，其中 1 個是重音節。你猜得出是哪一個嗎？

Can you guess which one it is? About. It's the second syllable. What makes a syllable stressed?

About。 重音在第 2 音節

怎樣才是一個重音節？ 這個，about

Well, about. uh, about. It is usually higher in pitch. About. Also, longer in duration. About.

A--，About。 重音節通常音高較高

About。 音長也較長。 About

And it is this higher pitch and longer length that allows our ear to pick it up

就是這種「較高的音」及「較長的時間」 讓我們的耳朵聽到重點，聽懂別人說的話。About

and understand what's being said. About.

In longer words with more syllables, there can be a primary stress and a secondary stress.

長一點的字，音節也較多 這些字會有 1 個「主要重音」及 1 個「次要重音」

So the primary stress would be the highest in pitch and perhaps the longest,

主要重音的音高最高，音長可能最長

但也許還有另外一個音節也很重要，需要稍微地被凸顯出來

but there might also be another syllable that is important that is brought out somewhat.

例如：單字「embarrassment」

For example, the word embarrassment. Em-bar-rass-ment.

Em-bar-rass-ment。 這個字最後 2 個音節不發重音

So here it is the last two syllables that are not stressed.

第 2 音節是重音節。 Embar-

And it is the second syllable that is stressed. Embar-.

But the first syllable is also somewhat important

但第 1 音節也有些重要，音高比最後 2 個音節還高 Embarrassment

and higher in pitch than the last two. Embarrassment.

So, the first syllable there has a secondary stress,

所以，第 1 音節該處發次要重音，第 2 音節發主要重音

and the second syllable has the primary stress.

The last two syllables are unstressed.

最後 2 個音節則不發重音

And, within a sentence. 'I saw her at the meeting.' Which words did you hear the best?

在一個句子中，「我在會議上見到她。」

哪些字你聽得最清楚？

I saw, saw: this verb is higher in pitch. I saw her at the meeting.

我見到，見到。此動詞的音較高。我在會議上見到她

「會議」及「見到」是此句中被重讀的字

So it is 'meeting' and 'saw' that are the stressed words within this sentence.

I saw her at the meeting.

我在會議上見到她。

Let's take a look at some pictures. Here I've used some speech analysis software.

我們來檢視一些圖片

這是我一直在用的某個「說話分析軟體」

It's a free download, and I'll put a link to it on my website.

它是一個免費下載軟體，我會把此軟體的連結放在我的網站上

This software allows one to look at several aspects of the voice.

此軟體可讓任何人以一些不同角度檢視人聲

Here I'm focusing on pitch because that is one of the

此處我聚焦在「音高」上

因為那是構成一個重讀字或重音節的重要部分之一

important components of a stressed word or a syllable.

The blue lines represent the pitch of the voice.

這些藍色線條表示人聲的音高

Here I've circled the stressed syllable in the word about.

此處我把單字「about」的重音節圈起來

這是發重音的第 2 音節

It is the second syllable that is stressed,

and you can see that it has this curve up in this syllable.

你可以看到這條朝上的曲線出現在此音節中

Here, again, on 'embarrassment',

這裡，又出現在「embarrassment」上

重音節的音稍微高些，而且音高分布具有朝上的杓子形狀

the accented syllable is slightly higher in pitch, and has this scoop up in pitch.

Embarrassment, with the primary stress on the second syllable,

Embarrassment：主要重音在第 2 音節，次要重音在第 1 音節

and a secondary stress on the first syllable.

And, in the sentence, here is the word 'saw', and the word 'meeting'. I saw her at the meeting.

接下來，在此句中，此處是單字「saw」及「meeting」

我在會議上見到她

這 2 處的「saw」及單字「meeting」的前半部是此句的重音節

Where both 'saw' and the first half of the word 'meeting'

are the stressed syllables of this sentence.

All of these accented syllables are generally higher in pitch

所有這些重音節的音高一般都比較高

而且都有這種朝上的小杓子形狀出現於人聲中

and have this slight scoop up in the voice as the voice emphasizes the syllable.

只要加重此音節的發聲就會形成

In addition to there being words and syllables that are stressed within a sentence,

在句子當中，除了有重讀字及重音節之外

還有那些被省音的字

there are those that are reduced.

For example, listen to how the word 'for' is pronounced in this sentence:

例如，注意聽此句中的單字「for」是怎麼念的：

'I got it for you,' Frr, frr. It was not at all 'for'. I got it for you.

「我幫你拿到了。 」 Fer、fer。一點都不像「for」

「我幫你拿到了。」 它的音比較低，也比「for」短得多

So it was lower in pitch and much shorter than 'for'. Fr, fr, I got it for you.

Fer、fer。 「我幫你拿到了。」

It is these changes in pitches, along with an understanding of the sounds,

就是這些「音高」上的改變，連同對聲音的瞭解

that make up an accent, and they are so important.

構成一個重音，它們是這麼的重要

後續還有更多的影片

There will be many more videos on stress, reduction, and speech patterns coming soon.

內容關於重音、省音及說話模式等部分，即將推出，敬請期待