Word stress for speakers of Polish 1: Introduction

This is a short introduction to word stress with examples focused on some common difficulties experienced by native speakers of Polish.

English does not have strongly fixed word stress. Shorter nouns and adjectives are likely to be stressed on the first syllable, many short verbs are stressed on the last syllable, final stress is more likely in Latinate or French-derived words than Germanic ones, but it is difficult to generalise. By contrast, Polish word stress is fairly fixed on the penultimate (last but one) syllable, while some verb forms with suffixes and a number of foreign words are stressed on the antepenultimate (last but two) syllable. Numerous speakers of Polish do not, however, pronounce those exceptional words in the standard way but instead move the word stress to the penultimate syllable to the dismay of some prescriptivists and Polish language teachers.  

A major difference between English and Polish lies in the reduction of most unstressed English syllables to the schwa sound (more on which below), while Polish phonology does not have reduced vowels, just quieter, shorter versions of full vowels. Comparing the schwa sound to unstressed versions of the Polish /a/, /ɛ/ or /i/ should be, in my opinion, avoided in TEFL.

1. Many books use capital O and lowercase o to mark stressed and unstressed syllables, e.g. those by Cambridge University Press.

Poland, yellow Oo insist, believe oO

This is different from phonetic symbols, where a stroke at the top of the line is used to indicate that the next syllable is stressed.
/ˈpəʊlənd/, /ˈjeləʊ/, /ɪnˈsɪst/, /bɪˈliːv/

2. Some words have more than one stressed syllable. In those words there is a main stress (a stroke at the top of the line) and a secondary stress (a stroke at the bottom).

understand OoO, magazine OoO, photographic OoOo
/ˌʌndəˈstænd/, /ˌmægəˈziːn/, /ˌfəʊtəˈgræfɪk/

3. Stressed syllables are longer, somewhat louder and the pitch often goes up.
In unstressed syllables the most common sound is the schwa /ə/ or the front close vowel /ɪ/, even if the spelling suggests a full vowel.

nature Oo /'neɪtʃə/ the "ure" is not /uːr/ or /juːr/, but /ə/ (/ɚ/ in US English and other rhotic varieties).

4. Some unstressed syllables have syllabic consonants - according to some sources there is no real vowel there at all:
/l/ in double, battle, /n/ in station, fashion, /m/ rhythm, chasm Oo
/ˈdʌbl/, /ˈbætl/, /ˈsteɪʃn/, /ˈfæʃn/, /ˈrɪðm/, /ˈkæzm/

5. The most common traps for Polish speakers are words which are similar to Polish ones (cognate words) but with different stress patterns.

kalendarz oOo, dinozaur oOo, rakieta oOo, natura oOo, kultura oOo, lemoniada ooOo,
afrykański OoOo, polityka OoOo
calendar Ooo, dinosaur Ooo, rocket Oo, nature Oo, culture Oo, lemonade OoO /ˌleməˈneɪd/,
African Ooo, politics Ooo

6. Almost no Polish words have final syllable stress, which is why Polish speakers avoid it in English.

along, ago, begin, belong, bereave, between, Chinese, dessert, evade, fatigue, go on … oO

7. Some words are double traps: some Polish speakers may not believe the stress in an English word is analogical to that in a Polish word.

mechanik, komputer oOo / mechanic, computer oOo
Ameryka oOoo / America oOoo

As a result, many Polish learners of English are likely to say */'kɒmpjuːtə/ instead of /kəm'pjuːtə/, */'mekənɪk/ instead of /mɪ'kænɪk/, */ˌæmə'rɪkə/ or */ˌæmə'riːkə/ (or another version with additional errors such as Polish vowels) instead of /ə'merɪkə/.

8. The final point worth mentioning is the difference in word stress that occurs in British and American English:

adult, garage, ballet, café   British Oo, American oO