Re: THEORY: final features, moras, and roots [was: it's what I do]

At 8:44 pm -0400 4/10/00, Jeff Jones wrote:
[....]
>
>This is the problem, I think, the specific definitions of mora and
>syllable. In Greek and Classical Latin poetry, the mora is simply a unit of
>duration. E.g.
>         cu-pi:-di-ne:s-que
>          1  2   1   2    1
>-ne:s- has a both a long vowel and an s crammed into a 2-mora syllable;

Correct.

[snip]
>Japanese is different -- the mora is primary, with a 1-to-1 correspondence.
Yes - what seems to be coming across loud and clear from your mail & those
of 'Togonakamane' is that the term _mora_ is being used differently in
describing Japanese from the meaning the word originally had.

Maybe it'd have been better if a different term had been coined to describe
the Japanese phenomenon.  Just as _mora_ is taken from Latin itself, isn't
there a term in Japanese to denote the "Japanese mora"?   If so, it seems
to me that it would be less confusing to use it.

[...]
>Anyway, I hope I haven't muddied the water even more!
No more than they were before.  Indeed, I think your mail has - unless I'm
misunderstanding things - confirmed what I was suspecting, i.e. _mora_
being used with different meanings   ;)

>Jeff Jones
>Non-Japanese Non-Linguist
Yes - and I'm merely an amateur linguist.  Can any of the professional
linguists on this list make the waters clearer?

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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