Stress

Generated words can receive IPA stress marks (ˈ for primary, ˌ for secondary) according to a configurable strategy. Stress is assigned after syllable generation, so it works with both fresh generation and lexicon-based sampling. When morphology is configured, affixation runs first, so stress is computed over the full derived form. Syllables left unstressed are eligible for vowel reduction.

Top-Level Configuration

Add a "stress" field to your sketch to set the default strategy for all word classes:

{
  "stress": {
    "default": "trochaic",
    "secondary": true
  }
}

"default" is the stress strategy applied to every word class that does not override it. "secondary" enables secondary stress on alternating syllables in words with 3 or more syllables. It defaults to false when omitted.

Strategies

Strategy	Primary stress position	Typical languages
`trochaic`	First syllable	English, German
`iambic`	Second syllable (first if mono)	French-ish
`penultimate`	Second-to-last syllable	Latin, Spanish
`final`	Last syllable	French, Turkish
`none`	No stress assigned	Function words

Monosyllabic words receive primary stress unless the strategy is none.

Per-Class Overrides

Each word class can override the default strategy with its own "stress" field. This is how you keep function words unstressed while content words carry stress:

{
  "stress": { "default": "trochaic", "secondary": true },
  "word_classes": {
    "det":  { "patterns": ["CV"], "stress": "none" },
    "noun": { "patterns": ["$OV$K", "$OV$K $OV$K"] },
    "verb": { "patterns": ["$OV$K"], "stress": "penultimate" }
  }
}

Here, determiners get no stress, nouns inherit the top-level trochaic strategy, and verbs use penultimate.

Secondary Stress

When "secondary": true and a word has 3 or more syllables, secondary stress (ˌ) is placed on alternating syllables aligned with the primary stress, so the word parses into uniform two-syllable feet and secondary stress never lands adjacent to the primary.

trochaic builds strong-weak feet from the start of the word: ˈta.ka.ˌta.ka
iambic builds weak-strong feet: ta.ˈta.ta.ˌta
penultimate and final alternate outward from the primary: ta.ˌta.ta.ˈta.ta and ta.ˌta.ta.ˈta

Without Stress Configuration

When no "stress" field is present at either level, no stress is assigned – words are generated without stress marks.