diff --git a/espeak-ng-data/lang/sem/ar b/espeak-ng-data/lang/sem/ar
index 7b07e30e..52198086 100644
--- a/espeak-ng-data/lang/sem/ar
+++ b/espeak-ng-data/lang/sem/ar
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 name Arabic
 language ar
 phonemes ar
+
+stressRule 4
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c b/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c
index 14dc709f..79ac361e 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c
@@ -506,7 +506,6 @@ Translator *SelectTranslator(const char *name)
 		tr->transpose_max = 0x65f;
 		tr->transpose_map = NULL;
 		tr->letter_bits_offset = OFFSET_ARABIC;
-		tr->langopts.stress_rule = STRESSPOSN_3R;
 		tr->langopts.numbers = NUM_SWAP_TENS | NUM_AND_UNITS | NUM_HUNDRED_AND | NUM_OMIT_1_HUNDRED | NUM_AND_HUNDRED | NUM_THOUSAND_AND | NUM_OMIT_1_THOUSAND;
 		tr->langopts.param[LOPT_UNPRONOUNCABLE] = 1; // disable check for unpronouncable words
 		tr->encoding = ESPEAKNG_ENCODING_ISO_8859_6;