Re: R: Moraic codas [was Re: 'Yemls Morphology]

Hi Luca.

I snipped the diagrams; they didn't seem to line up correctly in
my monowidth world.

On Thu, 12 Jul 2001, Mangiat wrote:

> GENERAL RULE: final syllables are not moraic (thus they can never get
> stressed), unless they contain a long vowel or a diphtong.
>
> The right-most foot gets stressed:
>
> IRMANDEN
>
> /ir'manden/
>
> KASIKULA
>
> /ka'sikula/
>
> Final syllables containing a long vowel / a diphthong are always stressed:
>
> AMNIPAI
>
> /amni'pai/
>
> INTUUT
>
> /in'tu:t/
>
> Would it be better expressing the general rule in these terms: the last foot
> is stressed (considering the abovementioned foots to be respectively a
> trochee, a dactylus, a hiambus and a spondee?).
No need to invoke the classical foot typology. What it looks
like to me is that you have a system in which coda consonants
are not moraic, and that the stress falls on the penultimate
mora.

If you really like having feet, you could describe this system
as one which builds a moraic trochee (sequence of two morae
where the first is prominent) at the right edge of the word.

> And what do you think of this system?
It's simple, elegant, and subtle in the interplay of final and
non-final stress.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga                          dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu

"The strong craving for a simple formula
has been the undoing of linguists."               - Edward Sapir

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