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Almost every German phonetic book points out the presence of the secondary stress, yet unlike English I do not see most dictionaries including Duden, PONS, Oxford, Larousse among many others refer to it in the phonetic writing. I can imagine that some syllables must have a secondary stress since they do not have a primary stress and can not be reduced to schwa as well as they are originally the main stems in other words. Examples:

Einteilung, Hochhaus, Autogeschäft, auswerfen etc.

Do the previous syllables in bold have secondary stress? Is secondary stress important in German in the first place? Why do not dictionaries mention it like English dictionaries do?

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    You should correct Autogeschäft** to Autogeschäft* since ge is definitely the syllable with the least stress - Au(1)-to-ge-schäft(2). Au is first, schäft is second. Similarly aus(1)-wer(2)-fen. – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 16:44

2 Answers2

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For me as a native speaker: yes, longer German words have syllables with secondary stress, and it is important to put the correct stress (pimary and secondary) on the right syllable.

Test:

Au(1)-to-ge-schäft(2)

is correctly pronounced. Whereas

*Au(1)-to-ge(2)-schäft

is a technically possible way of pronouncing this word, but it is definitely wrong. It sounds as if the person speaking was from Russia or Hungary. (Both have their peculiar and separate problems with finding the correct syllables to stress in German.)

Similarly

Ein(1)-tei(2)-lung

is correct, whereas

*Ein(1)-tei-lung(2)

sounds completely idiotic, and I can even not imagine a native speaker of what language would be in danger of pronouncing it this way. If any, it would be something as far away as Mandarin.

You can do this test with every longer word: Rattenschwanz, Gebührenordnung, Feuerwehrleiter, Hundekacke, Kamelhaarjacke, Suppenschüssel, Oxymoron, Ausspracheregel, Poesiealbum, Onomatopoeie, Auspuffmuffe...

Later thoughts: is there a 'potential secondary stress'?

After some more in-depth discussion in the comments e.g. around words such as Stadtrundfahrt, as well as with respect Janka's separate answer, I would admit that it can justifiably be claimed that Stadtrundfahrt can also be seen as having one single syllable stress (*Stadt(1)-rund-fahrt), i.e. one can see the other syllables as equally unemphasised.

However, there seems to be at least a potential secondary stress bearing syllable; which becomes visible as soon as one tries to put a secondary stress on one of the remaining syllables. Put it on the wrong syllable, and you get a clear mistake: Stadt(1)-rund-fahrt(2), whereas put on the correct syllable, everything sounds okay: *Stadt(1)-rund(2)-fahrt.

Consequently I would instroduce here the term of a "crypto-secondary stress location", "hidden secondary stress location", or "potential secondary stress location".

Christian Geiselmann
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  • I'm a bit wary about -geschäft which gets reduced very much in southern dialects. If there is any stress on it, it seems to be by purpose to me. – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 16:56
  • @Christian Geiselmann Thank you, it was only a mistake due to rush. Of course, neither ge- nor ver-/er-/be-/zer-... has a stress. –  Sep 06 '18 at 16:56
  • @Janka Dort wo man nicht "Schuhgeschäft" sondern "Schuhgschäft" sagt (also etwa im schönen Schwabenland), gibt es ja auch keine dritte Silbe, die den Sekundärakzent fälschlicherweise abbekommen könnte. "Gschäft" ist einfach nur ein einzige Silbe. Aber beim "Gschäftleshuber" ist die Aussprache als Gschäft(1)-les-hu(2)-ber (und nicht anders!) trotzdem wichtig. – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 16:58
  • Gut erklärt. . . – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 16:59
  • Where is the secondary stress in 'Stadtrundfahrt'? Is it right when a primary stress 'Stadt' immediately preceeds a secondary stress 'rund', then the secondary stress moves to right and thus in 'fahrt' instead of 'rund'? –  Sep 06 '18 at 17:03
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    Both Stadt- and -rund- are prefixes. The stem is -fahrt. – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 17:04
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    @Abdullah Correct distribution of stresses is Stadt(1)-rund(2)-fahrt. - Probe: Stadt(1)-rund-fahrt(2) would sound odd. I admit that this is a difficult case. Additional observation: Rundfahrt is correctly pronounced Rund(1)-fahrt, not Rund-fahrt(1). – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 17:05
  • Sounds like your answers are contradicting –  Sep 06 '18 at 17:08
  • @Abdullah Contradicting in what? - I so far only gave correct pronunciations. I did not claim I knew a rule or so for this. – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 17:08
  • Christian is right, but it's hard to make out a pattern in this. – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 17:10
  • I thought Janka has said the secondary stress is on 'fahrt', but you have said it is better to be on 'rund' –  Sep 06 '18 at 17:10
  • I wouldn't apply secondary stress at all. – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 17:11
  • @Abdullah Yes, that's interesting. But Janka did not say where the stress is, she only presented an idea about prefixes and word stems. – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 17:11
  • That's ok, I don't need rules, and I am very grateful –  Sep 06 '18 at 17:11
  • Ok, that clears everything up, thank you a lot both. You have been so helpful. –  Sep 06 '18 at 17:12
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    @Janka I admit that it is also a viable argument to claim that Stadtrundfahrt has only primary stress, and no secundary. But if you want to place a secondary, it would be on rund. – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 17:12
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    @Abdullah It was a good and well-put question. – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 17:13
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    By the way, if you always stress the end the words, you'll sound Swiss. – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 17:14
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    @Janka I gluub, äsisch netdie lätschte, äsisch vielmähr die ärschte Silbe! – Christian Geiselmann Sep 06 '18 at 17:16
  • Ah! So läuft das. – Janka Sep 06 '18 at 17:17
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Secondary stress is used on the stem if the primary stress is put on the prefix instead by purpose. For example, the natural pronounciations are:

'Teilung → 'Ein"teilung

'werfen → 'aus"werfen

It's pretty common to use stress to distinguish separable verbs from their inseparable counterparts:

fahren → 'um"fahren (Sie 'fuhr den Pylon 'um.)

fahren → um'fahren (Sie um'fuhr den Pylon.)

Your other two examples Hochhaus and Autogeschäft do not have "natural" secondary stress. Just don't put any stress on reduction syllables as -ge- in Autogeschäft. (You may of course apply your own stress pattern to point out parts of the word.)

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