Re: Splitting Syllables

Matthew Kehrt wrote:

> In Eviendadhail, syllables are very important. [...]  Thus, I have AR, the root
> for 'red', beget "Äir" ( = fire) and "Är" ( = blood).  The first is two
> syllables and the second, one.  However, this seems weird to me.  Of
> especial confusion is the two words "Nel" ( = child) and "Ênlê" ( =
> small).  Both come from the PE root, NL, "small".  However, the two <l>s
> are actually different phonemes, one being an initial sound and the
> other a final.  Does anyone know of any natlangs in which roots get
> split between syllables?
Yeah... English for example.  Take a wellknown agglutinative word in
English:  "antidisestablishmentarianism".  That breaks down into:

    [E-n.ti.dI.s@.st&.blIS.mIn.tE.ri.j@.nI.z@m]

(my dialect, obviously; where [E-] is a lowered [E]).
The root here, "establish", is broken into three distinct syllables.

> Also, I know my root system isn't very
> scientific.  Does anyone have any better ideas?
Your system is not at all strange.  In most languages, the need for
syllables to have onsets outranks any morphological considerations.
Thus, in my dialect of English, I epenthesize a semivowel homorganic
with the preceding vowel so as to avoid hiatus of two vowels (in [ri.j@]
above).  The phonology a language has, in other words, is autonomous
from the morphology.

(This is not to say morphology doesn't play a role; it can affect where
stress is placed, for example.  It's just not too high in the constraint
ranking, that's all.)

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
  entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
  erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos