Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 May 25

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May 25

"Figuratively" (and "temporarily" in GA/RP and "laboratory" in GA and "militarily" in RP/UK and "necessarily" in RP), the stress being on the first syllable out of five (at least). Does English have any other such word?

As for "laboratory" (the stress being on the first syllable out of 5) in some accents of General American English, I can also think about a six syllable word, the stress being on the first syllable: Laboratorially. But I don't want my question to be limited to General American English (or rather to some accents of GA), so for the time being I'm focusing on the word "figuratively", as a 5 syllable word, the stress being on the first syllable - in all accents (AFAIK), and I'm looking for more examples. 2A06:C701:747B:E700:712E:3D21:B1B6:9E43 (talk) 02:22, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Here are five more, although I'd exclude "momentarily" as being normally stressed on the 3rd syllable, in my experience. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 03:27, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks. So, for the sake of our readers: the additional four words, probably pronounced in all accents with the stress on the first syllable out of five, are: capitalism, nationalism, regionalism, relativism. I wonder why that website neglected figuratively.

As for momentarily, GA speakers pronounce it with the stress on the first syllable, as it can also be heard on GoogleTranslate. The IPA ibid. which apparently contradicts the audio, was probably set by a non-GA speaker, so it's probably not a real contradiction. A real contradiction does exist, though, on Wiktionary, regarding momentarily and temporarily in British accent. 2A06:C701:747B:E700:B863:B7A0:D2E1:34AE (talk) 06:38, 25 May 2023 (UTC) 2A06:C701:747B:E700:B863:B7A0:D2E1:34AE (talk) 05:32, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Momentarily is stressed on the antepenult (ar) in American English, as can be heard and seen e.g. on Merriam-Webster[1]. You need to stop using Google Translate as a speech attestation, because it isn't. Lazar Taxon (talk) 17:44, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

The same goes for temporarily, militarily, and necessarily.  Card Zero  (talk) 08:11, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

The stress on laboratorially would be on or, following the analogy of words like dictatorially. Some compositionally valid (if hypothetical) words with five syllables after the stress would be ones like speculativenesses or manipulativenesses. --Lazar Taxon (talk) 03:52, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

On GoogleTranslate, laboratorially, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, by a GA speaker. dictatorially seems to be different, probably because also dictator is not pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. 2A06:C701:747B:E700:B863:B7A0:D2E1:34AE (talk) 05:38, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Laboratorially is not a well-established word – the dictionaries that attest it do so only in passing, and don't specify a stress – so analogy is the only thing to go off. In composition it would be the adverbial form of an adjective laboratorial, and adjectives ending in -orial are stressed on or (memorial, sartorial, manorial, conspiratorial, gladiatorial, etc.). Google Translate is not a person and doesn't have the linguistic intuition necessary in this case.

Also, dictator is stressed on the first syllable in American English. (But that doesn't have a direct bearing on the pronunciation of dictatorial, which is stressed the same way by both Brits and Americans.) Lazar Taxon (talk) 17:36, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Google gives a few hits for laboratorially, in some scientific articles, but if it's still not a well established word, then figurativism is. Its stress is on the first syllable out of six. 2A06:C701:7466:9200:A8E7:8A27:9D0E:9FBA (talk) 18:42, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Magnificently? HiLo48 (talk) 06:19, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

The stress is on the second syllable, followed by 3 syllables only. 2A06:C701:747B:E700:B863:B7A0:D2E1:34AE (talk) 06:38, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Here in Australia, the stress is on the first syllable. HiLo48 (talk) 08:27, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Oh, great! good to know. Thanx. 2A06:C701:747B:E700:B863:B7A0:D2E1:34AE (talk) 13:07, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

@ User:HiLo48 Huh? Do you actually say MAG-ni-fi-sənt-ly? I've only ever heard Aussies (or anyone) say mag-NI-fi-sənt-ly. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:41, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

• It is going to be hard to find many more examples than what has been given, as English tends to keep the stress on the antepenultimate syllable for long words on which one keeps tacking on suffixes. Thus di-AG-on-al but di-ag-on-AL-it-y. There's lots of examples of this stress pattern in English. Having the primary stress fifth-from-the-end rather than third-from-the-end is unusual, though not unheard of, as noted. See [2] for example. --Jayron32 16:10, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

alteratively • ambulatively • arrogatively • calculatively • caritatively • carminatively • circulatively • comitatively • corporatively • criminatively • cumulatively • dominatively • dubitatively • duplicatively • explicatively • generatively • germinatively • imitatively • iteratively • judicatively • limitatively • mediatively • nominatively • numeratively • palliatively • pignoratively • predicatively • punctuatively • regulatively • ruminatively • separatively • similatively • speculatively • stimulatively • temperatively • vegetatively •   --Lambiam 09:10, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Also characterlessly. Some of them may allow playing around with different suffixes, e.g. characterlessness. --Theurgist (talk) 11:32, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Some news, and a new question, from the OP: Thanks to Jack of Oz's link about some five-syllable words ending with "ism", the stress being on the first syllable, I thought about some six-syllable words, with the stress being on the first syllable, in all accents (AFAIK). figurativism, generativism, predicativism, wikt:speculativism. Further, Google gives hits also for figurativistic, generativistic, predicativistic, speculativistic, with the same number of syllables. The same is true for an eight (or at least a seven) syllable word, like: figurativistically, generativisticaly, predicativistically, speculativistically.

Anyway, besides words containing: "istical" or "figurativ" or "generativ" or "predicativ" or "speculativ" (or "laboratorially"), does English have any other word, its stress being on the first syllable, out of more than five? 2A06:C701:7466:9200:A8E7:8A27:9D0E:9FBA (talk) 18:49, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Doesn't the suffix -istic(al) necessarily take the primary stress? --Theurgist (talk) 11:25, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

See: wikt:relativistic. 2A06:C701:7466:9200:A8E7:8A27:9D0E:9FBA (talk) 22:49, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Agree with Theurgist: none of your latest examples are accented on the first syllable in GA, although they have a secondary stress there. Also, wikt links are unpersuasive; see WP:WINARS. A link to NOAD that supported your view would be much stronger evidence. Mathglot (talk) 09:22, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

I can't see, how my latest wikt link, which only deals with the British accent of relativistic, contradicts your comment about GA only.

As for my 13 examples of English words, each of which contains more than five syllables: Which one of them is not accented on the first syllable in GA? Here they are: laboratorially, figurativism, figurativistic, figurativistically, generativism, generativistic, generativistically, predicativism, predicativistic, predicativistically, speculativism, speculativistic, speculativistically.

2A06:C701:7466:9200:A8E7:8A27:9D0E:9FBA (talk) 13:30, 30 May 2023 (UTC)