# Indonesian: lembab - stress/pronunciation



## piotrekk_poland

Hi,

How do you pronounce the word "lembab" meaning "humid"? Is the stress on the first or the second sylable? LEMbab or lemBAB?

Terima kasih!


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## stupoh

piotrekk_poland said:


> Hi,
> How do you pronounce the word "lembab" meaning "humid"? Is the stress on the first or the second sylable? LEMbab or lemBAB?



ləm-bäb (maybe ä is not really suitable, but the other letter that looks live a upside down 'v', I cant copy-paste that letter somehow)

ləm is read like the English word 'harmless' : \ˈhärm-ləs\
bäb is read like the English word 'bubble' : /ˈ'bʌäb.l ̩/ (again here, the ä is not right and should be the un-copy-paste-able upside down v)

As far as I know, in Indonesian language, the word stress is not important. It won't change the meaning. But it has something to do with accents, so everyone doesn't always agree. As for myself, I feel that the word _lembab_ should be stressed on the first syllable.




piotrekk_poland said:


> Terima kasih!


Sama-sama


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## palomnik

Many books on Indonesian state that the stress is on the penultimate syllable, except where the penultimate has the "ə" sound.  This isn't entirely accurate; all syllables receive equal weight in Indonesian, like good peninsular Spanish. To western ears, though, the syllable with "ə" seem to be unstressed.


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## piotrekk_poland

Thank you. I think what I wanted to know was whether the first syllable had the "shwa" sound /ə/ just like you said. As for the phonetic symbols, you can copy-paste them from this website http://ipa.typeit.org/ it should work: æ ʌ ɒ


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## spystalker

you should stress on "bab"
good luck


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## henriyo

Stressing is normally equal, except you say it in a situation in which emotion is involved.


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## Pierre Lucien

I've heard (on similar words) Jakartans (actually from Lampung) saying _LEMbab_, and Balinese (in Ubud), saying _lembaaab_ with an intonation __---- ...


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## wishbook

As far as I know, there is no particular stressing for Indonesian Languange


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## adrnstyd

no stressing needed. you just say it with the same weight. stressing sometimes used in a sentence (usually a question) not in a word.


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