Some proper names deviate from the way stød is distributed in the Danish vocabulary in general. Oxytone lexemes with long sonority rhymes normally have stød, as in mus [mu??s] 'mouse,' telt [t??l?d?] 'tent' and [p???????d?] parat 'ready.' So do the boys' names Hans [han?s] and Rolf [??l?f]; but Jens [j?ns] and Niels [nels] have no stød. Paroxytone lexemes are generally without stød, as in skole [?s??o?l?] 'school,' [?hu??d?i] hurtig 'quick' and [b?a?læ?ð?] ballade 'rumpus.' So are the towns Holte [?h?ld??] and Horsens [?h??s?ns]; but Balslev [?b?al?slew] and Borup [?b?o????b?] have stød. Nine thousand proper names were analyzed in search of phonological properties that might account for the departure from the fundamental principle of lexeme stød in Hans Basbøll's Non-Stød Model. The results do not challenge the validity of the model; but they suggest an amendment and a differentiation of the perception of boundaries between elements in compound and compound-like names.
