Timeline for How do I pronounce words of Latin or Greek origin in German?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 4, 2018 at 16:58 | comment | added | Janka | Let us continue this discussion in chat. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 15:24 | comment | added | user34137 | When I was studying how to pronounce words of Latin or Greek origin in English, I have encountered somehow the same rule: *In a word of three or more syllables, the weight of the penult determines where the accent is placed. If the penult is light, accent is placed on the antepenult; if it is heavy, accent is placed on the penult.*Looks like what applies to English applies to German as well in this matter. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 15:03 | comment | added | Janka | If you can't make out the stem, it's all up to you. For example, I would stress all drug brands named -zym on that last syllable, but it's only a personal preference. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 14:47 | comment | added | Janka | There aren't any more rules about the stress of Latin words in the school pronouciation. It's already a simplification of the "real" latin, which has also developed over time. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 14:37 | comment | added | user34137 | Do these rules about Latin nouns cover all the possibilities that may occur in any given noun? About German nouns, sometimes the stem has more than one syllable, and I think some trademark nouns are totally invented for commercial reasons, so no stem or prefix is obvious, how can I know which syllable to stress? | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 14:30 | comment | added | Janka | In German words, the stress is on the stem. That's the first syllable after prefixes. But this is more a convention than a rule. You may stress any syllable of a word to make a point. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 14:26 | comment | added | Janka | For non-compounds, the latin school pronounciation is 1) stress on second last syllable if it is long. 2) stress on third-last syllable if the second-last is short. Vowels with a macron in the dictionary are long and so are their syllables. In addition, all syllables whose vowel is followed by two consonants (doesn't matter if in the same or next syllable) are considered long. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 14:19 | comment | added | Janka | I think Hubert has studied Latin and Old Greek longer than I did (7/2). He's from Austria after all. | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 13:12 | comment | added | user34137 | Thank you a lot, I asked Hubert the same question, but your answer is very important to me since you have studied these languages for a long time: Is the stressed syllable in Latin/Greek words ALWAYS predictable? Is the stressed syllable in drugs scientic/brand names, tradmarks,.. predictable as well? Are there rules for the stress position in such non-Greek non-Latin nouns? – | |
| Sep 4, 2018 at 9:18 | history | answered | Janka | CC BY-SA 4.0 |