Stress, Boundaries, and Spoken Reduction

Stress

Stress falls on the first syllable of the root. Affixes do not move it.

Morpheme boundaries

Optional hyphens may be inserted at genuine morpheme boundaries.

Hyphenated and unhyphenated forms are equivalent in meaning, pronunciation, stress, and grammatical status.

Examples:

• efttag = eft-tag
• timbde = timb-de
• mannarens = mann-ar-en-s
• tvaatigg = tvaa-tigg

A hyphen may not split a morpheme internally.

Natural speech

Canonical spelling remains morphologically explicit, but ordinary speech may smooth difficult boundaries or assimilate neighboring sounds when the intended structure remains clear.

This does not create a spelling exception or a new formal rule. The language name Nordsippisk, for example, may naturally smooth at speed without changing its canonical spelling or morphological analysis.