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Lexical stress
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Despite the possibility of formulating generalizations concerning the locus of primary stress (see generalizations on the placement of primary stress in loanwords), a variety of cases remain for which these generalizations do not hold. The locus of stress, then, may be a lexical property of words. This is shown by the pair of words in (1), which are segmentally (nearly) identical, but differ as to stress placement:

1
kanon /ka.'non/ cannon vs. kanon /ˈka.non/ canon
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We find a variety of cases where primary stress does not seem to be predictable from segmental content or syllable structure. Consider the examples in (2) (where A and B stand for A-class vowels and B-class vowels, respectively):

2
a. A-AC
      tapir /'ta:.piər/ tapir vs. klavier /klav.'viər/ piano
b. A-A
      nivo /ni.'fo:/ level vs. bruto /'bry.to:/ gross
      kopy /ko:.'pi/ copy vs. baly /'ba:.li/ counter
      taboe /tab.'bu/ taboo vs. goeroe /'ɡuə.ru/ guru
c. BC-BC
      kompas /kom.'pɔs/ compass vs. kanvas /'kan.fas/ canvas
d. A-BC
      bizon /'bi.zon/ bison vs. bidon /bi.'don/ bottle
      kokos /'ko:.kɔs/ coconut vs. kolos /ko:.'lɔs/ colossus
e. A-A-A/B
      kabbala /kab.'bal.la/ kabbalah vs. bacchanaal /bax.xan'na:l/ Bacchanal
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