Re: Dragging heavy feet

On 10/03/07, T. A. McLeay <conlang@...> wrote:
>
> Some languages have a requirement than every (stressed) syllable is
> heavy, so for instance in Swedish [takk] could be a word, and so could
> [tA:k], but [tak] can't; it needs an extra mora.
>
> Do there exist languages in which *feet* must be heavy so that for
> instance (assuming initial stress), all of these are valid feet:
>
> - takka
>     MM M    (M represents moraic segments)
> - taak
>     MMM
> - tank
>     MMM
> - takaa
>     M MM
> - taaka
>     MM M
> - takan
>     M MM
> - takkan
>     MM MM
> - taakan
>     MM MM
> - taakaan
>     MM MMM

I'm no expert on this, but apart from "tank" these all look Finnish (maybe
they are Finnish-inspired)? (The fact that "tank" is disallowed is due to a
restriction on "k" ending a word, and on two consonants ending a word.

But these are not:
>
> * ta
>     M
> * taa
>     MM
> * tak
>     MM
> * taka
>     M M
>
> --
> Tristan.
>
These can occur in Finnish, but afaik only in "function" words, which do not
obey the normal rules (e.g. in English "function words like "to" etc. do not
normally have primary stress.)

Jeff
--
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