Re: NEW LANG: Telek

At 10:50 25/04/00 -0600, you wrote:
>
>> Pitch-accent:
>>
>> Words start at a low pitch, and gradually raise until reaching the peak
>> syllable.  Pitch remains high on every remaining syllable (usually only
>> one).  Determining the peak is done by the following rules:
>>
>> 1. The peak is either the ultimate or penultimate syllable, whichever is
>> heavier, if tied, on the ultimate.
>> 2. The peak must be heavy.
>> 3. If both syllables are light, the vowel of the penult lengthens and
>> becomes the peak.
>> 4. The peak may not be on the initial syllable, disyllabic words peak on
>> the final syllable.
>
>Doesn't rule 3 contradict rule 1? If I read rule 1 correctly,
>the following situation obtains for a word ending in two light
>syllables:
>
>        ... CV.'CV.
>
>After lengthening,
>
>        ... CV.'CVV.
>
>With accent falling on the final syllable. But in rule 3 you
>address this specific scenario stating that the penultimate
>becomes heavy and thus eligble for the accent:
>
>        UR      ... CV.CV.
>        V-long  ... CVV.CV.
>        accent  ... 'CVV.CV.
>
>Which is very different. So which is it? (Or here's a
>possibility which just occured to me: does rule 1 apply only to
>cases where the final two syllables are both heavy?)
>
I think you have to use rule 1 only if at least one of the last two
syllables is heavy. So by summing up the rules, we would have:

Disyllabic words have peak on their last syllable, which becomes long if
not already heavy. Trisyllabic and more words have peak on one of the last
two syllables. If only one of them is heavy, it has peak on this one. If
both are heavy, it has peak on the ultimate (or maybe the penultimate, I
didn't understand well the rules for that). If both are light, the
penultimate becomes long and takes the peak.

So, did I understand the rules correctly?

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
(ou : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepages/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html)