Help:IPA/Conventions for English: Difference between revisions

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One-syllable words may have stress. Most dictionaries leave it out, but that can be confusing when several such words are strung together. For example, in the name [[Zack de la Rocha]], ''Zack'' and ''Rocha'' have stress, but ''de la'' does not. It would therefore convey an incorrect pronunciation to leave the stress mark off ''Zack'': {{IPA|/ˈzæk dɛlə ˈroʊtʃə/}}.

OED2 does not indicate stress on monosyllables, but uses the stress mark two disambiguate disyllables: ''higher'' "({{IPA|ˈhaɪə(r)}}") vs. ''hire'' "({{IPA|haɪə(r)}}"). On WP, the distinction is made with the aid of the syllabicity mark: {{IPA|/ˈhaɪ.ər/, /ˈhaɪr/}}.

Dictionaries also disagree on secondary stress. Generally, any stressed syllable prior to the last is marked as secondary ({{IPA|/ˌzæk dɛlə ˈroʊtʃə/}}), and that convention is followed here. However, several dictionaries also mark full (unreduced) vowels as having secondary stress when they come after the primary stress, even though they are not actually stressed. This practice is avoided on Wikipedia; if you have a word transcribed {{IPA|/ˈCVˌCV/}}, it should probably be {{IPA|/ˈCVCV/}}.