1.4 Where the Stress Falls — Epoché
What you will be able to do Divide an Arabic word into syllables, and say which of four shapes each syllable has. Tell a light syllable from a heavy one, and a heavy one from a superheavy one. Apply the stress rule in three steps and get the right answer without having heard the word before. Place the stress correctly in مَدْرَسَة , مَدِينَة and كِتَاب , which are three different answers from one rule. Stop doing the two things English does to unstressed syllables, which are shortening them and draining the colour out of them. Prerequisites : 1.3 and the four emphatic consonants English stress has to be learned word by word. Nothing in the spelling of photograph tells you that the stress is on the first syllable, and nothing in the spelling of photography tells you that it has moved. English speakers carry a stress pattern in memory for every word they know, and when they meet a new word they guess. Arabic does not work like that. The stress of an Arabic word is computed from its shape. Give an Arabic speaker a word invented five seconds ago and they will stress it in the same place as every other speaker, because the placement follows from the lengths of the vowels and the arrangement of the consonants, both of which are on the page. This is the one lesson in this volume where you can get the right answer by counting instead of by listening, and it is therefore the easiest of the six. The rule needs two pieces of equipment: a way of cutting a word into syllables, and a way of calling a syllable light or heavy. Both are simple, and both depend entirely on the vowel lengths of 1.1, which is why that lesson came first. How it sounds Cutting a word into syllables An Arabic syllable always begins with exactly one consonant. Never two, never none. That single fact does most of the work of dividing a word, because it tells you that when two consonants meet in the middle of a word, the break goes between them, and when a consonant sits between two vowels it belongs to the syllable on the right, which is to say the following one. After that opening consonant a syllable has one of four shapes. In the descriptions below, C stands for a consonant, V for a short vowel and VV for a long one. Shape What it is Example in transcription Weight CV a consonant and a short vowel, nothing after it ma, ki, tu light CVV a consonant and a long vowel maa, kii, tuu heavy CVC a consonant, a short vowel and a closing consonant mak, bint has two of these parts heavy CVVC or CVCC a long vowel closed by a consonant, or a short vowel closed by two taab, bint superheavy Only the last shape needs care, and only at the end of a word: superheavy syllables occur in Arabic almost exclusively in final position. In the middle of a word you will meet the first three and nothing else. So in practice you are looking at the last syllable to see whether it is superheavy, and at everything else to see whether it is light or heavy. The rule, in three steps Take the syllables of a word and work through these three steps in order. The first one that applies gives you the answer, and you stop. If the last syllable is superheavy, stress the last syllable. Otherwise, if the next to last syllable is heavy, stress the next to last. Otherwise, stress the third from last . In a word of only two syllables, where there is no third from last, stress the first. That is the whole rule. Notice what it does not mention: the meaning of the word, its part of speech, its root, and whether it is a loan from another language. None of those matters. Notice also that the rule never puts the stress further back than the third syllable from the end, however long the word is. One more thing the rule does not mention, and this is the point where an English speaker has to be careful. Arabic stress is not very loud. It is real, and getting it wrong sounds wrong, but it is a modest rise in pitch and effort rather than the large contrast English makes. Most of the difference an English listener hears between a stressed and an unstressed English syllable is actually a difference in the vowel, and in Arabic that difference does not exist, because unstressed vowels keep their full length and colour. So aim for a light touch. Ten words worked through Read the table across. For each word, the second column shows the syllables with the stressed one marked by the hook in front of it, and the last column says which of the three steps decided the matter. Word Meaning Notes كِتَاب ar kuttāb book Syllables [kiˈtaːb] Which step decided it step one: the last syllable is a long vowel closed by a consonant مِفْتَاح ar miftāḥ key Syllables [mifˈtaːħ] Which step decided it step one: the same superheavy ending اِجْتِمَاع ar meeting Syllables [ʔidʒ.tiˈmaːʕ] Which step decided it step one, in a word of three syllables هذا اجتماع مهم. This is a very important meeting. مَدِينَة ar madīna city Syllables [maˈdiː.na] Which step decided it step two: the next to last syllable has a long vowel دمشق مدينة جميلة. Damascus is a beautiful city. سَيَّارَة ar sayyāra car Syllables [sajˈjaː.ra] Which step decided it step two: the same, after a doubled consonant هذه سيارة. This is a car. دَرَّاجَة ar darrāja bicycle Syllables [darˈraː.dʒa] Which step decided it step two: long vowel in the next to last syllable مُسْتَشْفَى ar mustašfan hospital Syllables [musˈtaʃ.faː] Which step decided it step two: the last syllable is heavy but not superheavy, and the one before it is closed أعمل في مستشفى. I work in a hospital. قَلَم ar qalama pen Syllables [ˈqa.lam] Which step decided it step three: two syllables only, so the first takes it هذا قلم. This is a pen. مَدْرَسَة ar madrasa school Syllables [ˈmad.ra.sa] Which step decided it step three: the last two syllables are both light هذه مدرسة. This is a school. مُمَرِّضَة ar nurse Syllables [muˈmar.ri.dˤa] Which step decided it step three: four syllables, and the third from last is closed انا ممرضة. I'm a nurse. The fourth and the ninth rows are the pair to rem