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

Roger Mills wrote:

> >I'm actually working at a 'skeleton' which should work as Senquarian's
> >ancestral language. I'd like the stress system to work on moraic
> principles.
> >Could you professional linguists/phonologists take a look at this,
please?
>
> Not sure I count as a professional anymore-- having forgotten much, and
not
> very familiar with the system you're using here ;-(   -- but:
> >
> >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:
>
> How is "foot" defined?
Well... In the following exemples -man- and -siku-, despite the former
monosyllabic and the latter disyllabic, are two feet; each of them contains
two morae. The stress, when falling on a foot, falls on its left-most
mora: -man- is /'man/, not /ma'n=/, -siku- is /'siku/, not /si'ku/.

> >
> >IRMANDEN
> >|      |  |   |
> >µ  (µ µ)µ
> >|      \ /  /
> >s      s  s
> >/ir'manden/
>
> I see this; apparently a closed syllable is 2 moras; or at least -CVn-, as
> in Japanese.....
Yup. These were only some exemples... so I picked up some characteristics
from the most famous moraic language I know smth about, Japanese.

> >
> >KASIKULA
> >   |   |   |  |
> >  µ(µ µ)µ
> >   |   |   |  |
> >  s  s  s  s
> >/ka'sikula/
>
> Not sure I see this; why not /kasi'kula/? surely, discounting -la, -ku- is
> the rightmost foot??
No. Kasikula breaks this way: ka-siku-la. LA is discounted, SIKU is the
rightmost foot, and, within SIKU, SI is the left-most mora. The system works
as in Latin.

> >Final syllables containing a long vowel / a diphthong are always
stressed:
>
> Yes; these are clear.
>
> Can long vowels/diphthongs occur other than finally?
Yes.

> What happens if they can?
Long vowels and diphthongs count two morae each. So, if they are in adequate
position, they get stressed.

> What would happen if item #1 were /irmaden/-- 'irmaden, I'd guess.
Yes. Unless you have a long /a/, which would be stressed: /irma:den/ >
ir'maden.

> This strikes me as more a "light CV vs. heavy CVC syllable" system-- but I
> suspect that's just moras by another name.....
>
> Rule 1:  a diphthong/long V in the ultima is stressed, otherwise--
> Rule 2:  a heavy penult (-CVC-) is stressed, otherwise--
> Rule 3:  stress the antepenult (no matter whether heavy or light)
Quite so. Considering long vowels in penultimate position, too:

Rule 1:  a diphthong/long V in the ultima is stressed, otherwise--
Rule 2:  a heavy penult (-CVC- or -CVV-, where VV marks a long vowel) is
stressed, otherwise--
Rule 3:  stress the antepenult (no matter whether heavy or light)

Which looks rather Latin...

Luca

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