Stress/Unstressed languages ???

[j4mes_bond25]

English is a language WITH stress i.e. certain syllable having stress while French language has NOT got a stress & hence French "cathedral" would be where all the syllable would be heard with equal stress, while in English, the stress goes in 2nd syllable i.e. "the". Similarly, Hindi language has NO stress, so native speaker would speak English in the same way i.e. ignoring the "stress" syllable making them sound little "singh-songy" as Welsh English.

I wonder other than English, which other has "stress" pattern & other than French & Hindi, which other language does NOT have stress pattern ???

[Tdol]

How about Japanese? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timing_%28linguistics%29

[AlainK]

It's true that it's a major difficulty for French native speakers when they learn English. (for instance desert vs dessert, refuse vs refuse, etc...)
I think most slavic languages have no stressed syllables, but nyggus for instance would probably give you more accurate info on this matter.
Italian has stressed syllables, most of the time one the one before the last (alievo, professore) and it's a bit longer.
But it's easy as pie compared to Mandarin (Chinese) : it has five tones !
There's a file sound here (.ogg) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language#Phonology

Five different meanings for one syllable ("ma"), wow ! (wow, wow, wow, wow..)
Not for you if you sing out of tune...

[Tdol]

Portuguese stresses the penultimate syllable too, unless there's an accent to change the pattern.