§ 486. Subject pronouns have much weaker stress than the verb apart from the forms of the copula əs &c., e.g. ·hi:N′ ʃə, ‘he stretched’; ·hen′i m′ə, ‘I saw’.
§ 487. A dependent genitive or attributive adjective is more strongly stressed than the substantive, e.g. mαdə ·ruə, ‘fox’; p′αdər Nə ·b′i:N′αχə, ‘Peter of the pence’ (the name of a beggar); rɔʃə ·wα:n, ‘fair Rose’; tαluw ·mαiç, ‘good land’.
The numerals however also have strong stress, e.g. ·d′ɛ ·bo̤Ntə, ‘ten pounds’; ·ku:g′ ·f′i:pə, ‘five pipes’. But when d′ɛəg follows the substantive the latter loses its strong stress, e.g. ·ɔχ(t) b′i:N′ ·d′ɛəg, ‘eighteen pence’. Note also ·ꬶαiçəd, ‘forty’.
§ 488. Adjectives and substantives used predicatively with əs (= is) and the negatives N′i:, Nαχ &c. have stronger stress than the subject, e.g. əs ·mo:r ə f′αr ə, ‘he is a big man’; Nαχ ·b′r′ɛ: N Lα: ə, ‘is it not a fine day?’
Similarly with tα:, e.g. tα: ʃɛ ·dɔrəχə, ‘it is dark’. But tα: may have the stress in an emphatic reply, e.g. ·tα: ʃɛ dɔrəχə = ‘you are right, it is dark’ (locally ‘it’s jest dark, ’tis jest, jest’).
§ 489. A substantival object is more strongly stressed than the governing verb, e.g. du:rsə ·ɔ:rαn, ‘he sang a song’; kαihəm to̤·bαkə, ‘I smoke tobacco’.
A pronominal object has weak stress, e.g. ·krαkə m′ə huw, ‘I shall strike you’; tər ·dũw ə, ‘give it to me’.
§ 490. Adverbs and adverbial expressions have generally stronger stress than the verbs or adjectives they qualify, e.g. glαk gə ·sɔkyr′ ə, ‘take it easy’; Nα kyr′ kɔ ·t′Uw̥ iəd, ‘do not set them so close’.
§ 491. Prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions and the negative particles have weak stress, e.g. ‑Nə ‑Nαχ ·wαkə ‑tuw ‑m′ə, ‘did you not see me?’; ‑mαs ·mαi ‑l′αt, ‘if you please’; gə‑d′e: ‑mər ·tα: ‑tuw, ‘how are you?’
§ 492. Emphasis is denoted either by the construction with əs or by stressing a word which would otherwise not have the strong stress, e.g. ·N′ïl′əs əgəm ·kα wiL′ ʃə, ‘I do not know where it is’.
Sentence-stress is marked in the first few lines of the tale An Chevalier agus na tri daill p. 241.
