Stress

Stress

In Sereer, stress is assigned to the left-most long vowel of a word. When no long vowels are present, stress is assigned to the left-most stem syllable.

Some noun tokens marked for stress:

• a.ˈtee.re 'book'
• o.ˈgef 'crack'
• xa.ˈkef 'cracks'
• o.ˈpaa.faañ 'clam digger'
• o.ˈpaa.fañ 'refuser'
• ˈmaa.lo 'rice'
• ˈdoo.le 'strength'
• dok.ˈtoor 'doctor'
• ˈqoox.ke 'bulls'
• 'gi.di 'gun'
• o.ˈtee.fan.le 'cow walker'

Some verb tokens marked for stress:

• a.ˈfoo.la 'jump'
• a.ˈsu.ma 'be hot'
• a.ɓo.ˈgoo.xa 'wash (refl.)'
• fa.ˈdii.di 'come in (imperative)'
• gee.ˈnoo.xaam 'I stand in place'
• aˌbaaj.baaj.'loo.xaa 'he's pretending to sing'