COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STRESS PATTERNS IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES
Keywords:
Stress, prosody, phonology, Uzbek language, English language, comparative linguisticsAbstract
Stress is one of the most essential suprasegmental features of prosody that plays a vital role in distinguishing meaning, organizing rhythm, and enhancing the intelligibility of spoken language. This study presents a comparative analysis of stress patterns in the Uzbek and English languages, focusing on their phonological rules, structural characteristics, and pedagogical implications. A descriptive-comparative approach is applied to examine both lexical and sentence stress, drawing examples from authentic oral and written materials. The analysis demonstrates that English exhibits a variable and contrastive stress system that depends on morphological structure, word formation, and contextual emphasis. By contrast, Uzbek generally follows a fixed stress pattern, with primary stress typically placed on the final syllable. However, exceptions are found in borrowed words, expressive or emphatic speech, and certain dialectal variations. The results indicate that these typological differences between English and Uzbek often cause pronunciation and rhythm difficulties for Uzbek learners of English, leading to misplaced stress and monotone intonation. The findings are significant not only for comparative phonology but also for language pedagogy, as they highlight the need for explicit instruction in stress perception and production. The study contributes to the understanding of cross-linguistic prosodic variation and provides practical recommendations for improving pronunciation teaching in Uzbekistan.
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