English Stress: Its Form, Its Growth, and Its Role in VerseMorris Halle and Samuel Jay KeyserHarper & Row, PublishersThe English stress system is based on the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables and words. Stressed syllables are longer, louder, and have a pitch change or voice movement. English is a stress-timed language, which means that the stress pattern of a word is based on the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables.