Re: Nasals (again!) and a stress-question

>From: Markus Miekk-oja <torpet@...>
>I've been toying with the idea of having two nasals, (which I shall
>translitterate m and n) in a language (yet nothing strange, huh?).
>M is the usual bilabial nasal stop, while n is "a voiced nasal airstream
>(mostly) without any oral articulation", or to put it another way -
>"a nasal schwa with both syllabic and nonsyllabic allophones".
[snip following paragraphs]

Well, the nasal schwa /@~/ exists in Cherokee (Tsalagi) and it's usually
transliterated as "v" (which is a very unorthodox letter to use for a
vowel!).  The non-syllabic allophone would probably be /n/, the common
dental nasal, with obvious allophones such as /N/ (velar nasal) before velar
consonants, etc.  Or are you looking for a nasalized semivowel?  Something
that creates diphthongs like /@~i/ and /@~u/?  Would the nasality spread to
neighboring vowels or even consonants?

>The last closed syllable (of the root) is always stressed. If no closed
>syllables exist, the penultimate will be stressed. One-syllable words, are
>only stress accented and several aren't stressed at all (pronouns, etc.).
That, ultimate/penultimate is probably the (or one of the) most common
stress rule in any natlang, that and initial stress, like Finnish has.  Or
even a combination of the two -- Arabic has initial stress unless there is a
"long syllable"; that is, a CVC or CV: (long vowel) syllable within a word.
_'kataba_ "he wrote" vs _ki'ta:b_ "book", for example.  Latin of course has
predictable stress, but it's always either penultimate or antepenultimate
(third to last syllable), again all depending on open or closed syllable
factors.

(For the record, Tech has in longer words primary stress on one of the last
three syllables; secondary stress on the first nonclitic syllable.  The
Greek loanword <eukharisti'a>/ "Eucharist, Communion", for example, is
stressed: /,Ef:xarI'Sti:j@/.)

Danny



Danny

>Does this seem like a naturalistic stress-rule? Why or why not?
>
>I'd be grateful for any answers.
>
>  -- Miekko
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