Suprasegmentals

In linguistics, suprasegmentals are contrastive elements of speech that cannot be easily analyzed as distinct segments but rather belong to a syllable or word. These elements include intonation, stress and juncture. In some languages nasality and vowel harmony are considered suprasegmental or prosodic by some phonologists.Suprasegmentals can be very important in understanding speech as they can change the meaning of a sentence or even a word. In certain languages the stress can indicate the tense or even mean something else entirely. In linguistics, suprasegmentals are contrastive elements of speech that cannot be easily analyzed as distinct segments but rather belong to a syllable or word. These elements include intonation, stress and juncture. In some languages nasality and vowel harmony are considered suprasegmental or prosodic by some phonologists.Suprasegmentals can be very important in understanding speech as they can change the meaning of a sentence or even a word. In certain languages the stress can indicate the tense or even mean something else entirely.