Lexical stress in modern Halh Mongolian

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study lexical stress in Mongolian and its place of realization. Words and short declarative sentences are analyzed. We observe certain regularity in the rising of F0 on the most prominent syllables. We also show that duration is used as a correlate of stress in the sense that long vowels are privileged to receive stress: the stress falls on the syllable which contains a long vowel whatever its place within a word. In the case there is no long vowel, the stress falls on the second syllable. (Stress design here lexical stress).