Shoshoni syllables [was: Re: Vowel Harmony Q]

On Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 11:52  AM, jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM
wrote:

> Dirk Elzinga scripsit:
>
>> Goshute Shoshoni /hu:kkat1n/ which is pronunced variously as
>> ['u:kka41_0] ~ [U:kka41_0] ~ ['o:kka41_0].
>
> Aaakkk, an overlong stressed syllable!
("aaakkk" -- nice)

I suppose you can look at it that way, but it seems that geminates (and
homorganic nasal-stop clusters) do not contribute to the *weight* of
the syllable, whatever the length properties might be. Shoshoni stress
is sensitive to heavy syllables, but the first half of a geminate or
the nasal of a nasal-stop cluster don't make the syllable heavy. Here
are some examples of closed syllables which don't attract stress,
followed by some examples of syllables with long vowels which do
attract stress:

['hiBikk_wa]  'drank' (closed syllable [Bik])
['toim"piD1]  'finally came out' (closed syllable [im])
['jaGet"t1Gi"xand1]  'crying constantly' (closed syllables [Get], [xan])

[nu'4a:nu_0]  'ran'
[kot'to:x_wa]  'made a fire'

These last two are interesting since the usual initial syllable stress
is overridden by the long vowel of the second syllable. It's all the
more significant for 'make a fire' since the first, passed-over
syllable is closed by the first half of a geminate, which in many
languages would make it a heavy syllable.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead;
therefore we
must learn both arts."                                      - Thomas
Carlyle