sg.) A long that originates from this process does not trigger consonant lengthening. Consonant lengthening In dialects outside Eastern Finnmark, in quantity 2, the last coda consonant is lengthened if the following vowel is long, and the preceding vowel is a short monophthong. Since the coda now contains a long consonant, it is considered as quantity 3, but the lengthening is mostly allophonic and is not indicated orthographically. It is phonemic in the Western Finnmark dialects when the following vowel is , because lengthening is triggered by an original long but not by an original short that was lengthened (as described above). The new consonant may coincide with its Q3 consonant gradation counterpart, effectively making a weak grade strong, or it may still differ in other ways. In particular, no change is made to syllable division, so that in case of Q2 consonants with a doubled final consonant, it is actually the first of this pair that lengthens, making it overlong. "year" (nom. sg.) ~ jagi (acc. sg.) "fear" (nom. sg.) ~ balu (acc. sg.) "sum" (nom. sg.) ~ supmi (acc. sg.); contrast "polar night" ~ skápma (acc. sg.) "eye" (nom. sg.) ~ čalmmi (acc. sg.); contrast "palm tree" ~ bálmma (acc. sg.) "bird" (nom. sg.) ~ lotti (acc. sg.); contrast "period" ~ botta (acc. sg.) Lengthening also occurs if the preceding vowel is a close diphthong or . In this case, the diphthong also shortens before the new quantity 3 consonant. , phonetically "protection" (nom. sg.) ~ duotti , phonetically (acc. sg.); contrast "track, trail" , phonetically ~ luotta (acc. sg.) with no lengthening. , phonetically "field" (nom. sg.) ~ gietti , phonetically (acc. sg.) Prosody Stress is generally not phonemic in Northern Sámi; the first syllable of a word always carries primary stress. Like most Sámi languages, Northern Sámi follows a pattern of alternating (trochaic) stress, in which each odd-numbered syllable after the first is secondarily stressed and even-numbered syllables are unstressed. The last syllable of a word is never stressed, unless the word has only one syllable. Consequently, words can follow three possible patterns: A single stressed syllable. An even number of syllables: Ending in a stressed odd-numbered syllable followed by an unstressed even-numbered syllable. An odd number of syllables: Ending in a stressed odd-numbered syllable followed by an unstressed even-numbered syllable, and an unstressed odd-numbered (final) syllable. This gives the following pattern, which can be extended