CVC light syllables, geminates and Moraic Theory

Abstract

The functional equivalence of CVV and CVC syllables, as opposed to CV syllables, is a time-honoured observation holding true for numerous languages over a variety of phonological and morphological phenomena, including stress assignment (cf. Newman 1972 for a review). Traditionally, the opposition between the two types of syllables has been informally described by reference to syllable weight: CVV and CVC syllables are heavy, CV syllables are light (e.g. La Grasserie 1909: 31–32). It has also been observed, however, that in languages sensitive to the CV/CVV distinction, CVC syllables do not necessarily pattern with CVV syllables, but may instead pattern with CV syllables, thus counting as light rather than heavy (Hyman 1985: 5–6; McCarthy & Prince 1986: 32–34; Hayes 1989: 255–256).

Geminate timing in Lebanese Arabic: the relationship between phonetic timing and phonological structure

“…Broselow et al 1995;F. Al-Tamimi 2004) or other languages (Tranel 1991;Hume et al 1997;Esposito and Di Benedetto 1999;Podesva 2000;Hassan 2002;Ringen and Vago 2011). As Ham (2001) points out, factors such as whether a language allows closed syllable shortening, whether there are constraints on quantity in VC sequences, or whether timing is syllable or mora based (as evidenced by temporal spacing between vowel onsets) all play a role.…”

“…This account works well for LA (see Section 4 on gemination in LA below), a quantity-sensitive language in which syllable weight governs stress patterns and minimal word structure. However, Moraic Theory poses problems for languages like Leti, Malayalam, Ngalakgan, and Selkup, where syllables closed with a geminate are considered light (Tranel 1991;Hume et al 1997;Baker 2008;Ringen and Vago 2011). This has led Hume et al (1997) to suggest that geminates are inherently non-moraic, while Broselow et al (1997) suggests a solution using mora-sharing with the preceding vowel.…”

“…In skeletal analyses of the syllable, geminates are single long phonemes which are linked to two slots on a prosodic tier; these are normally labelled using X or C/V slots (e.g., McCarthy 1979;Leben 1980;Tranel 1991). Within this analysis a geminate consonant has two timing slots and the singleton just one (Figure 1a), and consonants occupy a timing slot regardless of whether they are in onset or coda position.…”

Non-moraic geminates in Leti

“…We suggest that geminates as well as long vowels are represented as long segments: a single root node multiply linked to two skeletal positions, along the lines proposed in, for example, Clements & Keyser (1983), Levin (1985) and more recently Tranel (1991)." Further, while vowels are inherently moraic, consonants are not,12 but may be assigned a mora on a languageby-language basis (consistent with Weight-by-Position, as proposed in Hayes 1989Hayes , 1995.…”

“…To do so is not only problematic for theory-internal reasons, as noted above, it is also empirically incorrect. Tranel (1991) and Rialland (1993).…”