Norwegian stress and quantity: The implications of loanwords

Abstract

Disyllabic Norwegian words characteristically have an initial syllable which is stressed and heavy and a final syllable which is unstressed and light. Adopting a moraic theory of syllabic representation, the weight of the initial syllable can be realized either with a bimoraic vowel or with a monomoraic vowel followed by a moraic consonant. Monosyllabic words also show variation in the length of the vowel and the coda consonant. The native data are supplemented with loanword data, leading to the claim that the grammar of Norwegian must account for patterns with stress on the ultima, the penult or the antepenult. Stress can be assigned to both the core disyllabic and monosyllabic patterns by constructing a trochee; these patterns are equally well predicted by constructing such a foot at either the right or left edge of the word, and indeed both analyses have been advocated. The stress patterns of loanwords, however, reveal additional details about the assignment of stress, and sort out some unresolvable ambiguities arising when just considering the native vocabulary. These facts form the basis for advocating a right-edge oriented analysis of stress in Norwegian. The solution developed here avoids diacritics for signaling the location of stress, but appeals instead to moraic specification, which is independently necessary to characterize the length constrasts in the consonants.