It may be stated, accordingly, that the chief reason for the existence of two distinct types of spelling is the omission of h in unstressed languages, and the conversion of h into f under strong stress in stressed languages.
In the following examples stress-shift occurs, because the unstressed vowel is dominant while the stressed vowel is absorbed.
ARSIS, a confusing term sometimes borrowed from classical prosody for the stressed element of a foot; the unstressed element is called Thesis.
The former, the rest, is a pause used to take the place of anunstressed element.
The monosyllabic foot in which the unstressed element is missing offers no difficulty.
FOOT, the smallest metrical unit of rhythm, composed of a stressed element and one or more unstressed elements (or a pause), 49 ff.
So far attention has been confined to the stressed syllables, around which the unstressedsyllables are grouped.
The strong stress falling regularly on the first or the stem syllable produced as reflex a tendency to indistinctness in the unstressed endings.
Of these the chief are: (i) In unstressed syllables original long vowels tend to become short.
Clearly the richer the alliteration, the more freedom will be possible in the treatment of the unstressed syllables without undue weakening of the verse form.
But in fact, owing to the frequent use of unstressed syllables before the first stress (even in the second half line where they are avoided in the OE.
The grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables determines the rhythm.
Of this the weakening of unstressed syllables in English and palatalization in Slavic are examples.
In the same way variations that reduce the unstressed syllables of a word readily insinuate themselves into the articulatory habits of a people.
It is easier, consequently, to produce the unstressedsyllables "with shortened, weakened articulations.
But on the eighth ship-day out from Glamis, the Horus came back tounstressed space with a very, very bright star burning almost straight ahead.
Magnetic and gravitational fields also did not follow the same laws in stressed space as in unstressed extension.
In the elastic theory, as in the intricate beam theory commonly used, there is the assumption of an initial unstressed condition of the materials.
The vowel of an unstressed (atonic) syllable is often weakened, changing its quantity or quality or both.
Snails as a food are not sufficiently appreciated by the Germanic races who do not hesitate to eat similar animals and are very fond of such food as oysters, clams, mussels, cocles, etc.
The unstressed element in a foot, and especially in the third foot, is often doubled; one of the syllables often admits of being slurred: i.
The unstressed syllable in a foot is often wanting; sometimes all the syllables of a word are stressed, as in the first half of l.
Initial h before unstressed vowels is only pronounced when preceded by a pause.
He must articulate more carefully than in ordinary conversation: unstressed vowels will have greater importance and be less reduced, consonants will never be slurred over.
You use more force for the stressed than for the unstressed vowels, that is to say, you put more breath into them.
The letters e, i, and y in unstressed syllables represent a very laxly articulated sound, for which the sign [i] is used in this book.
Certain words drop the h when they occur in an unstressed position in the sentence; this is a regular feature of standard colloquial speech, and does not convey the slightest suggestion of vulgarity.
The a in the unstressed prefix trans-, and the second a of advantageous also have the sound of [ɑ] sometimes.
In very long words the due alternation of stressed and unstressed vowels was not easy to maintain.
The two latter diphthongs stood alone in never being shortened even when they were unstressed and followed by two consonants.
It is clear that this habit led to an inability to maintain a long quantity in an unstressed syllable.
Between the 1st and the 7th century of our era, the Classic Latin quantity died out: it had apparently disappeared from unstressed vowels as early as the 4th century, from stressed by the 6th.
If this secondary accent followed the tonic, its vowel probably developed as an unstressed post-tonic vowel; if it preceded, its vowel was apparently treated as a stressed vowel.
In the development of unstressed vowels there are very numerous local variations, which will be discussed later.
The relation of the fall of unstressed vowels to the development of intervocalic consonants, in French, has been examined by L.
The license of Anglo-Saxon poetry in the number of the unstressedsyllables still remains.
The number of unstressed syllables appears to a modern eye or ear irregular and actually is very unequal, but they are really combined with the stressed ones into 'feet' in accordance with certain definite principles.
The various Old High German vowels in unstressed syllables were either weakened to an indifferent e sound (geben, O.
The unstressed form is generally ðe or ðə, rarely ði.
The stressed form is h)im and the unstressed form im, but in the s.
The unstressedforms are generally a or ə, but in the n.
The guttural nasal disappeared in an unstressedsyllable when preceded by an {n} in a stressed syllable in the course of the OHG.
Feet thus deficient in stress may conveniently be called pyrrhics, the pyrrhic being understood as made up of two unstressed syllables.
In Anglo-Saxon verse the combination of a primary stress, a secondary stress, and anunstressed syllable, is a recognized type.
When there is an entire unstressed syllable following, the rime is called double, or feminine.
He even finds Coleridge untrue to the metre in putting where in an unstressedplace in the verse, on the ground that it means "through which.
Some have suggested, for such rhythms as these, the recognition of a foot made up of one stressed and three unstressed syllables.
Schipper gives a separate paragraph also to "unaccented rime," where the similarity of sound belongs wholly to final, unstressed syllables.
Only we must be careful that by "iambus," in English poetry, we meant an unstressed syllable, rather than a short syllable followed by a long one.
Manx goes as far as northern Scottish in droppingunstressed final vowels, e.
As in Welsh the accent is withdrawn during the middle period from the final to the penultimate (except in the Vannes dialect), which causes the modern unstressed vowel to be reduced in many cases.
Other vowels in unstressed position are apt to be reduced, thus o, u, give i in O.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "unstressed" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
