[Fwd: OT - Syllabic Stress in English and Russian]

["Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I will never learn to use "reply all" <g>.

> Dennis wrote:
> 
> >         One usually hears that in both English and Russian
> > there is no rule for where to place the syllabic
> > stress, that it has to be learned with each word, and
> > in Russian it shifts with different declensional and
> > conjugational forms.
> >
> >         However, I've read that this is not true in either
> > case.  There are rules; they just depend on whether a
> > noun or verb is involved.
> 
> I have never had problems with syllabic stress in English
> (with some isolated exceptions) - but stress in Russian was
> a nightmare! School textbooks of Russian have all the stresses
> marked which indicates how problematic it may be. I guess
> the rules are too many and too complicated to be learned
> (as in the case of English spelling rules).
> 
> Interestingly, the word "samovar" has 3 syllables and
> a different one is stressed in English, Polish and Russian
> (1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively).
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Rafal