ROBERT LAGERBERG 1 TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT OF THE STRESS OF RUSSIAN VERBS CONTAINING THE SUFFIX -ИРОВАТЬ: A SURVEY OF RUSSIAN SPEAKERS 2 1. INTRODUCTION In a previous article (Lagerberg 2003) the stress of the Russian verbal suffix -ировать was analysed. The main conclusions to come out of this article were: i) a general shift of stress from the final syllable (-иров´ ать) to the initial syllable of the suffix (-´ ировать) had taken place over the last 150 years approximately (continuing in the modern language), affecting a considerable number of words; ii) a smaller number of words with final stress (-иров´ ать) had been retained, and even, perhaps, extended, often in conjunction with certain semantic criteria (see Зализняк 1985, 105–106, for these criteria, or Lagerberg 2003, 349–350, for a summary of them). Certain of these verbs have simply retained the stress position -иров´ ать, but shifts of stress of the type -´ ировать > -иров´ ать may also have occurred as outlined by Lagerberg (2003). It would seem that if the general tendency in Russian is for a shift of stress from final syllable to initial suffixal syllable (from -иров´ ать to -´ ировать), then words currently with final stress marked in dictionaries and other lexicographical sources would represent a particularly fluid and unstable area amongst native speakers. Indeed, the stress of the suffix in general would represent a fluid area of the language, since the existence of two possible stress positions in words containing -ировать (e. g. группиров´ ать ‘to group’ vs. аплод´ ировать ‘to applaud’), not to mention a number of words with variant stress in the modern language (cf. премиров´ ать and прем´ ировать ‘to award a prize to, give a bonus to’), implies a situation with clear instability. A survey of speakers in the town of Lugansk in Russia was carried out in June 2003 with the purpose of throwing some light on the question of stress variation in the use of this suffix amongst native speakers. Fifteen speakers ranging in age from 16 to 65 (two males and thirteen females) from a range of professions and education levels were recorded reading aloud 32 sentences each containing a verb with the suffix -ировать in the infinitive form. 3 The majority of these words have final stress in standard sources, but a number of words with stress on the initial suffixal syllable were also included in order to ascertain whether even such ‘stable’ forms could exhibit variation. There follows an analysis of the survey. Russian Linguistics (2005): 39 – 47  Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s11185-004-5221-z