Re: CHAT: Importance of stress

> > From: Matt Pearson
> >
> > >in amman iar the stress is always penultimate in 2-syllable
> words, as in
> > >niran [nir'an].  In longer words, it occurs penultimately if
> > that syllable
> > >contains a vowel followed by two or more consonants as in orathval
> > >[orrath'val] or a diphthong as in erainin [erain'in].  If the
> penultimate
> > >syllable contains a simple vowel followed by a single consonant
> > or another
> > >vowel, the stress falls on the syllable before it as in tarnarin
> > [tar'narin]
> > >and nimroin [nim'roin].  Note that the digrams ch, th, dh, and
> > sh represnt a
> > >single consonant, tus erathin [er'athin] not [erath'in].
> Stress in amman
> > >iar is basically quantitative, i.e. syllables are
> distinguished by vowel
> > >length.
> >
> > Aha!  The old Latin/Quenya stress rule!  A simpler way to state it would
> > be:  "Stress the penultimate syllable if heavy, otherwise stress the
> > antepenult."  Amman Iar, like Tokana and numerous natlangs, appears to
> > distinguish 'heavy' syllables (those ending in a consonant or diphthong/
> > long vowel) and 'light' syllables (those ending in a short vowel).
>
> I'd say amman iar is in good company.
On reflection, this is not quite correct.  The heavy/light syllable
distinction is not really operative here, although my previous description
did not really adequately reveal that.  Thus

1 [C]VC VC' CVC erinvar [erin'var]
2 [C]VC VCC' VC orcarmar [orcarm'ar]
3 [C]VC' VC VC erinis [er'inis]

In each of the above, the penult is 'heavy', but in (3), the antepenult
takes the stress.  (1) and (3) show that it is not the quality of the penult
(whether light or heavy) in isolation that determines the stress pattern.
Apparently, the mere existence of a coda in the penult is insufficient to
trigger stress.  If mora count is involved here at all, it would seem that
an ultimate syllable with an onset has the effect of increasing the
effective mora count of the penult. I'm out of my depth here.  Any good
sources for this stuff?

David

David. E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
dbell@graywizard.net
www.graywizard.net

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