Stress patterns in Celinese vary considerably between dialects: most Circassír Celinese varieties have purely prosodic rather than lexical stress, whilst others, like Sairstír Celinese with its stressed initial syllables, have regular stress set on a particular syllable. In most varieties of Elithoan Celinese, the penult tends to be stressed, but there are hundreds of words with a different stress pattern. This overview will concentrate on Ioðinbêr and Perís Celinese – which together exert the most influence over “Standard Elithoan Celinese” (SEC) – and note the not inconsequential ways in which their speakers stress words distinctly.
Stress in SEC falls on the penult except where:
Roots have three or more syllables where the penult, which would usually take the stress, is <i> [ø]~[œ], <u> [u], or in some dialects, <y> [ɪ]. In these words, the antepenult tends to take the stress, hence Ioðinbêr [ˈi̯ɔðœnbeʐ] (capital of Elitho), sabyneth (chickweed) [ˈsabɪnɛθ] and mylubar (slow) [ˈmɪlubaʐ].
Roots have a diphthong in their final syllable, which is stressed instead of the penult unless the penult contains é or ú: momeir [mɔˈmɛiʐ] (candle), etoir [ɛˈtɔiʐ] (lest) and abrail [abˈrai̯l] (warm) being a few examples. This is not the case with the hundreds of words which feature the affixes –air and –oir, where the stressed syllable of the root does not move to the final syllable: byrno [ˈbɪɾnɔ] (pear) becomes byrnoair [ˈbɪɾnɔ̯aiʐ] (time of pears – October) and ecosos [ɛˈkɔsɔs] (study) becomes ecosoir [ɛˈkɔsɔiʐ] (school)
A word appears with a grave, the diacritic used to denote irregular stress without a corresponding change in vowel quality. Thus, the <ò> in awòn [aˈwɔn] (blueberry) is stressed and pronounced with the same vowel as <o> in awoc [ˈawɔk] (junta); the <è> of cathès [kaˈθɛs] (junta) and gefrès [gɛˈvrɛs] (danger) is pronounced as <e> [ɛ] and and the <à> of lofàr [lɔˈvaʐ] (river) and sàsaneg [ˈsasanɛç] (English language) is pronounced as <a> [a][1].
In almost all circumstances, when a word includes ú [u][2] or é [e] – such as séilë [ˈʂei̯lə] (sun, day), esombé [ɛsɔmˈbe] (lost property office) or cailús [kaiˈlus] (path, way). Unstressed [e] is written <ê>, and unstressed [u] is <u>.
In most circumstances, when a word includes í [i]. This is not as clear-cut, as – unlike [e] and [u] – there is no dedicated way to denote unstressed [i][3]: [i] exists in many words where it is does not have the primary stress, such as aníwoch [ˈaniwɔx] (material) or síren [ʂiˈrɛn] (opening)[4]. These words’ irregular stress has to be memorised, but there are some regular circumstances where í is not stressed in many dialects, to wit:
When –ín is used as a diminutive, most speakers do not shift the stress from where it lay in the root word: dosnë (dog) [ˈdɔsnə] becomes dosnín [ˈdɔsnin] (puppy), ðywyroc [ˈðɪwɪɾɔk] (river) becomes ðywyrocín [ˈðɪwɪɾɔkin] (puddle) and heıs [hɛʂ] (next of kin) becomes hesín [ˈhɛʂin] (brother). This does not apply to words where the –ín ending is not a diminutive such as daisín [dai̯ˈʂin], nor – often – to words whose origin as a diminutive form of a now disused word is not known to many Elithoans, such as celín [kɛˈlin] (language) or molín [mɔˈlin] (moon)[5]
Many speakers distinguish between the infinitive and the first person singular present of a verb by stressing the final í of the latter, but stressing the penult of the former, thus constrasting norí [ˈnɔri] (to want) with norí [nɔˈri] (I want). Many Northern speakers go one further and never stress the í in any of the verbal endings.
There are a small number of adjectives with the adjectival suffix –íg, where the í is pronounced [ɪ] as <y> and does not take the stress: the most common of this grouping are aisíg [ˈaiʂɪç] (pale), buíg [ˈbu.ɪç] (muddy), mulíg [ˈmulɪç] (foreign) and saichíg [ˈsai̯çɪç] (safe)
When í appears directly after another vowel, the previous vowel tends to be stressed, as in laíc [ˈla.ik] (secular) or tochtoír [tɔχˈtɔwiʐ] (chalice). This is not the case, however, for verbs – saroí (to colour) and teroí (to honour) are pronounced [saˈrɔ̯i] and [tɛˈrɔ̯i] respectively.
Almost all bisyllabic words ending in –el or –er are stressed on the last syllable in the North, such as hywel [hɪˈwɛl] (onion), lairel [lai̯ˈɾɛl] (light), moier [mɔi̯ˈɛʐ] (body) and actuel [akˈtu̯ɛl] (current). This is because they mostly come from the neighbouring Norèsc language.
In compound words, some speakers stress the stressed syllable (typically the penult) of the first root, others of the last – as a result, drethcybethír (taxpayer), which comes from dreth (tax) + cybethí (to pay) + -ír (suffix to denote "person who does action") can be heard to be pronounced as [ˈdɾɛθkɪˌbɛθiʐ] or [ˌdɾɛθkɪˈbɛθiʐ], with the former being more common.
The ê in the suffix –oê ([ɔjɛ]~[ɔje]) gains secondary stress, whilst the primary stress falls on the stressed syllable of the last root in a compound, so anséilmisoroê (assymetry, deriving from an- [negative prefix], séilë [sun], misor [measure] and –oê [abstract nominaliser]) is [anʂei̯lˈmøsɔrɔˌjɛ].
Whether stress shifts when plural endings are added to nouns varies considerably from one Celinese variety to another, but in Ioðinbêr, stress tends to move to the syllable before -ot and –ain, the feminine and neuter plural endings respectively: gengaith [ˈgɛŋgai̯θ] (effort) becomes gengaithot [gɛŋˈgai̯θɔt] and cyros [ˈkɪrɔs] (agreement) becomes cyrosain [kɪˈrɔsai̯n]. Pairseg speakers are divided between this pattern and retaining stress on the stressed syllable of the singular form.
A less geographically clear-cut but equally prevalent distinction can also be drawn between speakers who stress the –ím of the masculine plural ending and those who stress the stressed syllable of the singular form: fondoch [ˈfɔndɔχ] (lot, as in an auction) can be pronounced, when pluralised as fondochím, as [ˌfɔndɔˈχim] or the somewhat more prevalent [ˈfɔndɔχim].
Notes [1] And indeed, is also indistinguishable from <á> in most Elithoan dialects outside the North-West, where the distinction between /a/ and /ɑ/ is usually conserved.) The 952 Spelling Reforms of Celinese eliminated á from Standard Elithoan Celinese, respelling all irregularly stressed as as à, e.g. tahár (tea) as tahàr. <á> can still be seen in dialectical writings, as well as in names from Northern Elitho and elsewhere, such as that of the First Consul, Remú Morán.
[2] In both Perís and Ioðinbêr, there is no distinction between <u> and <ú>, but in many other Celinese varieties, like those of Chlasc and many parts of the Borintír, u/ù is [ʊ] or [ʏ] whilst ú is [u] or [y]. Until 984, there was a distinction in written SEC between ú and ù
[3] A parallel issue concerns [o], which is always written as ô despite existing in many words in stressed position, such as cerôn [kɛˈron] (mountain) or Lômborin [ˈloɱbɔrœn]. The Celinese lexicographers’ union has proposed introducing ó and reïntroducing ŷ to disambiguate on many occasions, but this has failed to gather much momentum. Elithoans are nothing if not reticent to accept major orthographical reforms.
[4] Spelling pronunciations of such words – pronouncing the í as stressed because the acute is thought to always denote stress – is not uncommon, even amongst L1 speakers of SEC.
[5] Some very conservative speakers of the language will pronounce even these with initial stress. All speakers, on the other hand, refer to celínec as if it were written cèlínec.