The phonetic realization of trochaeic meter in Latvian and Estonian

Abstract

Introduction Both Latvian and Estonian folk songs employ trochaeic lines. The two languages are genetically unrelated and typologically different; yet the folk poetry produced by the two peoples has developed a similar metric structure. We believe that the suprasegmental system of a language is crystallized in the metric structure of its traditional poetry;1 would it then not follow that similar metric structures found in traditional poetry imply similarities in the suprasegmental systems? We decided to study the phonetic realization of trochaeic lines in contemporary Estonian and Latvian poetry, with a view toward establishing the similarities and differences between trochaeic lines in the two languages, hoping also that the results of our study may throw some light on the metrics of the respective folk