StressTyp2 utilizes two encoding systems inherited from its parent databases, Syllable Priority Codes (SPCs) and StressTyp Codes (STCs). These provide a concise way of describing a range of stress patterns.
Syllable Priority Codes
SPCs were originally developed by Bailey (1995) and expanded on by Heinz (2007). The following is a brief summary made from Bailey's full guide and Heinz's explanation of his expansion.
SPCs use numbers to indicate syllables, and L or R to indicate from which edge of the word to begin counting. Thus the initial syllable is designated 1L, the peninitial 2L, the penultimate 2R, and the final syllable 1R. Thus for main stress, 1L (Afrikaans) simply mean main stress always falls on the initial syllable.
Slashes are for quantity-sensitive systems. Information about heavier syllables occurr to the left of the slash. Thus the SPC 12/2L (Maidu) means to the following: If the initial syllable is heavy, it gets stress, else if the peninitial syllable is heavy, it gets stress, else stress falls on the peninitial syllable.
Unbounded patterns use the 12..89 construct. For example, the SPC for Amele 12..89/1L unpacks to the following: If the first syllable counting from the left is heavy then it receives primary stress, else if the second syllable counting from the left is heavy then it receives primary stress . . . otherwise (if there are no heavy syllables) the first syllable counting from the left receives primary stress. Since words are unbounded in length, 89 do not literally mean the 8th or 9th syllable. Rather, 9 means the farthest syllable from the relevant edge and 8 means the next-to-farthest syllable from the relevant edge and so on.
StressTyp Codes
STCs were originally developed by van der Hulst et al. (2010) for the StressTyp database. What follows is a summary taken from their manual for StressTyp.
STCs use letters to indicate the position of main stress, as shown in the following charts:
Unbounded systems
| L | = last | L/ | = last heavy |
| F | = first | F/ | = first heavy |
Bounded Systems
| I | = initial | I/ | = initial heavy |
| S | = second | S/ | = second heavy |
| T | = third | T/ | = third heavy |
| U | = ultimate (final) | U/ | = ultimate heavy |
| P | = penultimate | P/ | = penultimate heavy |
| A | = antepenultimate | A/ | = antepenultimate heavy |
There is also a system of connectives for STCs, which are used in quantity-sensitive and unbounded systems. In the following, x and y refer to any of the above position codes.
| x/y | = x if heavy, otherwise y |
| x;y | = x and y both occur, but x is the dominant pattern in the lexicon |
| x/y;z | = x if heavy, otherwise y. z also occurs, but x/y is the dominant pattern in the lexicon |
| x%y | = x if heavy, otherwise shift to y |
| x%y/z | = x if heavy, otherwise shift to y if y is heavy, otherwise z |
| x-y/z | = x is special case; if there is no x in domain, y if heavy, otherwise z |
In general, the first abbreviation in a code identifies the special case, the final one the default case.