Sentence stress and rhythm of speech

Rhythm is generally measured in regular flow of speech in which stressed and unstressed syllables occur at definite intervals. Thre are two kinds of speech rhythm: syllable timed rhythm and stress-temed rhythm. Every language in the world is spoken with one kind of rhythm or with the other. Each language has developed its own characteristic speech rhythm. French and Japanese, for example, are syllable-timed languages, they depend on the principle that all syllables are of equal value. In these languages ayllables follow each other with fairly equal length annd force; and we feel an even rhythm, based on the smooth flow of syllables without a strong contrast of stress. To an English-speaking person this kind of rhythm sounds mechanically regular. English pronounced with such a rhythm would be hard to understand.

Rhythm in English, Russian and some other stress-timed languages is based primarily on the alteration of strongly and weakly stressed syllables. Within each intonation group the stressed syllables occur at fairly equal intervals of time. This means that if there are any unstressed syllables between stressed ones, they have to be fitted in without delaying the regular beat.

Sentence stress is the main means of providing rhythm in speech. Rhythm is the key to fluent English speech. Imagine a metronome beating the rhythm. The stressed syllables are like the beats of the metronome: regular, loud, and clear. The unstressed syllables between the beats are shortened, obscured and joined together.

Look at this sentence: Kevin sent a letter. - Кевин послал письмо .

Let’s mark the stressed syllables: KEVin SENT a \ LETter.

The pattern of stress here is stress - unstress - stress - unstress - stress - unstress, and every “stress” and “unstress” has one syllable behind it. Try to pronounce this sentence rhythmically, it’s easy to do because the alternation of one stressed and one unstressed syllable is easy to reproduce. Be sure to make the stress in the stressed syllables strong, much stronger than normal Russian stress:

KEVin SENT a \ LETter.

Let’s make this sentence a little longer:

Kevin decided to send a letter to his relatives in the village.

Кевин решил послать письмо своим родственникам в деревне.

Mark the stressed syllables and the fall:

KEVin deCIDed to SEND a LETter to his RELatives in the \ VILlage.

Now we have one, two or several unstressed syllables in the intervals between the stressed syllables, but we have the same amount of time for each interval because the stressed syllables, like the beats of the metronome, have to occur regularly. And the sentence is not very long, so we won’t need noticeable pauses between the thought groups.

How do we fit all the unstressed syllables in the intervals between the stressed syllables without breaking the rhythm that we had in “Kevin sent a letter”? The rules of reduction and linking will help us to do it:

1. All vowel sounds in the unstressed syllables in this sentence will become very short and most of them will be probably pronounced as the neutral sound. In a number of other cases, the neutral sound may be dropped, for example, can - [kn], BAKery - [`beikri], MEMory - [`memri]. By the way, the neutral sound [ә] is the most common vowel sound of English and deserves your special attention.

2. The final consonant of one word will be blended with the initial sound of the next word, for example, “n-th” will lose part of their articulation at the juncture, “d-t” will blend into one sound (or “d” may be dropped).

3. The sound [h] in the word “his” will disappear. This often happens in the words like “his, him, her, have”.

4. The unstressed syllables will become a stream of sounds jammed together. They will be lower in pitch and much less distinct than the stressed syllables.

Tempo of speech

    By speech tempo we mean the relative speed (of slowness) of utterance which is measured by the rate of syllable succession and the number and duration of pauses in a sentence. The average rate of delivery may contain from about two to four syllables per second for slow speech (lento), from about three to six syllables for normal speech, and from about five to nine syllables for fast speech (allegro).

    Every speaker has a norm which characterises his usual individual style of utterance. Some people speak more quickly, some more slowly; some people use more variation of tempo than others. Tempo is a feature, which like loudness can be varied from time to time by the individual speaker.

    The rate of speaking varies constantly. When two strongly stressed syllables occur close together, it is slower; when they are separated by unstressed syllables the speed is faster. The speed of utterance becomes slower or faster according to the number of unstressed syllables between the stressed ones.

    Differences of rate are used to help the listener to differentiate the more important (slow rate) and the less important (fast rate) parts of the utterance. Fopr example: I want you to understand the it is very important.

    We slo the last part of the sentence down and lengthen the syllables to get a stronger impression than if we say it at normal speed. An increase in the speed of the utterance may show it is less important: His own plan, he now saw, would fall through.

    Rate also performs emotional and attitudinal functions. It varies according to the emotional state of the speaker and the attitude conveyed. Fast rate, for instance, may be assosiated with anger, scolding, etc.

Where is the hammer? What did you do with the hammer? → Great `heaven! ‌‌| `Seven of you, §→ gaping `round there, | and you `don`t know § what I → did with the `hammer. ||  (Jerome K. Jerome. “Three Men in a Boat”)

    By pause we generally mean an act of stopping in the flow of speech. In speaking or reading aloud, we make pauses from time to time. These pauses break our speech or texts into paragraphs, sentences, intonation groups. In English there are three main degree of pauses: unit pause (one-unit), double (two units) and treble (three-init) pause. The length of pauses is related and is correlated with the rate of speech and rhythmically norms of an individual.