Take the tour ×  I understand that Fräulein is lexically
accented (stressed) more on the first syllable than the second;
wiktionary shows IPA pronunciation as /ˈfʁɔɪ̯laɪ̯n/,
/ˈfʁɔlaɪ̯n/, and also wikipedia says "Stress in German usually
falls on the first syllable, with the following exceptions: ..."
Anyhow, encountering Das Waldfräulein in a list of works of von
Ebner-Eschenbach, it occurred to me that my inclination to
accent the first syllable of Waldfräulein rather than the second
might be incorrect. Does this word fall into one of the classes
of exceptions mentioned in the above wikipedia reference, such
as compound adverbs or words with inseparable prefixes? What's
the correct placement of accent for Waldfräulein?  share|improve
this question add comment  2 Answers  up vote 5 down vote
accepted  Waldfräulein is normally accented more on the first
syllable than on the second. It is not an exception described in
the wikipedia article you mentioned. Waldfräulein is a compound
noun of the two nouns Wald an