Heavy Syllables Research Articles

The meter of Tashlhiyt Berber songs

I present an analysis of Tashlhiyt Berber meter, based on the corpus of ‘straight’ meters collected and analyzed by Dell and Elmedlaoui (2008). There are 56 meters (35 independent, 21 dependent), which are systematically related to each other. Based on the many shared properties of all straight meters and their individual inflexibility, I suggest that they all derive from the same general metrical template, much in the same way as proposed by Deo (2007) for several Sanskrit meters. The individual meters are thus different realizations of the general meter, where the modulation of line length is part of the realizational variation (unlike the case in Sanskrit). I also argue that the generalizations pertaining to the system of meters can be better understood, and more broadly formulated, in terms of the phonology of the language, in three areas. First, the Tashlhiyt straight meters are rhythmic in a very specific sense: they all obey NoClash. Several previously unconnected facts—verse foot shapes, avoidance of two heavy syllables in sequence, and the regular alternation of verse feet—follow from this single fact. Second, the meters are pervasively binary, with a strong preference for tetrameter, a fact that is not predicted by models where line length is stipulated (e.g. Hanson and Kiparsky 1996; Fabb and Halle 2008). Line length tendencies follow from the linguistic constraints on binarity, under the assumption that metrical templates are derived from the prosodic hierarchy, rather than externally, e.g. from a specific meter-generating module (e.g. Kiparsky 1977; Blumenfeld 2015). This would indicate that meter is derived from grammar in just the same way as prosodic morphemes. Third, and related to the second point, the regular prosody and the meter are simultaneously present in a line of verse, a common assumption. However, the fact that both structures come out of the linguistic grammar means that grammar operates in both domains (like in root-and-pattern morphology), rather than there being a matching between them. Meter obeys some constraint to a higher degree than does regular prosody, instantiating overall improvement in the particular respect addressed by the chosen constraint. In the straight meters of Tashlhiyt Berber, this privileged constraint is NoClash (as also in Tegnér’s Swedish hexameter), whereas in other systems the constraint may concern e.g. the alignment of prominence at some level (Darío’s Spanish alexandrines, Strindberg’s Swedish hexameter).

Weight-sensitive stress and acoustic correlates of disyllabic words in Marathi

Little of the literature on Marathi phonology addresses stress, and none of it systematically. The tentative accounts that do exist are contradictory in their descriptions (Pandharipande 1997, Dhongde and Wali 2009). Moreover, there is no research on the acoustic correlates of Marathi stress. To address this gap, this study investigates word-level stress and the acoustic correlates of stress in disyllabic words in Modern Standard Marathi. Since weight criteria vary across languages (Hayes 1995, Gordon 2004), the main goals are to determine what constitutes heavy syllables and whether or not long vowels behave like heavy vowels with two moras (µµ). Three main hypotheses are tested: (H1) stress is weight-sensitive, (H2) Marathi follows the Latin weight system (Gordon 2002) with CVX heavy, and (H3) when syllables have the same weight the left-most syllable bears stress. The study tests these hypotheses using auditory and spectrographic analyses of recordings from two native Marathi speakers. Results confirm ...

The Role of a Domain-specific Language Mechanism in Learning Natural and Unnatural Stress

Abstract In an artificial language-learning task, two groups of English and French participants learned one of two language rules: 1) stress the first heavy (CVC) syllable, else the first syllable, or, 2) stress the first light (CV) syllable, else the first syllable. French and English participants were chosen to compare learning outcomes by speakers of different native stress systems, fixed and variable. Participants were trained on the target language by listening to a set of nonsense familiarization words exemplifying the stress rule. This was followed by a forced-choice task to choose the correct version of the words they had just learned. Following the training procedure, participants were tested on novel words with the same stress pattern to which they were familiarized. The result of the novel word testing was that the natural rule with stress on heavy syllables was learned significantly better than the unnatural, stress light syllables, rule. To account for the learnability of both the natural and the unnatural rules, I argue for the interaction of a general cognitive mechanism that facilitates learning in general and a domain-specific language mechanism that can access universal phonological principles to aid in learning a natural language rule.

Analysis of japanese pitch accent in L1 and L2 speech

This study examines pitch patterns in Japanese speech produced by native speakers and Taiwan Mandarin speakers learning Japanese at the beginning level. It aims to provide detailed characteristics of pitch patterns at both word and sentence levels, and to discern common pitch errors in Mandarin speakers’ pronunciations. Mandarin speakers had more difficulty with pronunciation of words consisting of all light syllables than with words containing a heavy syllable, and a steep pitch drop all the way through the words was commonly observed. More importantly, the learners seemed unaware of the difference between accented rising pitch followed by a low pitch and accent-less rising pitch followed by a high pitch. This suggests that even though they know how to correctly pronounce words, they need to know accurate pronunciations at phrase level.

Vowel Quality and English Verb Stress

In this paper, vowel distributions of 3260 English monomorphemic verbs are examined to verify the claim that vowel height plays a considerable role in stress assignment in English. The claim was made by research on English nouns from a lexical database, CELEX(Baayen, Piepenbrock and Gulikers, 1995). It has found that vowel quality, especially vowel height, has a significant influence on stress location. Results of the current study provide further evidence for the claim that vowel height is related to stress location: First, lowness attracts stress; Second, a high front lax vowel, [?], is the second frequent vowel in unstressed syllables following a schwa.; Third, in stressed light syllables, a mid vowel, [?], appears most frequently while a low vowel [ae] is the most common vowel winning stress over a heavy syllable. These findings offer insights into the relations between phonetic properties of vowel phonemes and the nature of stress.

Tonal association in Tashlhiyt Berber: evidence from polar questions and contrastive statements

The placement of F0 peaks in Tashlhiyt Berber is highly variable, both within and across speakers, even across repetitions of the same target sentence. We show that peak placement is determined by a number of competing factors: in addition to a general tendency for the peak to be placed on the rightmost syllable – a tendency that is stronger in questions than in statements – the peak is attracted to the syllable with the most sonorous nucleus and preferentially to heavy syllables. Moreover, in words consisting entirely of obstruents, there are three possible intonation patterns: no F0 peak at all, an anticipated peak (before the target word) or a peak on a vocoid between two obstruents. The F0 peak is analysed phonologically as a H tone that is either associated with a postlexically determined syllable or, if the syllable is not tone-bearing, aligned with the edge of the larger domain.

Sonority vs. independency: A comparison of the sonority hierarchy and phonological make-up in child Japanese

Although awareness of the underlying phonological structure of a language is said to be a prerequisite in learning to read, there is still much debate as to which phonological units are the best predictors. The syllable plays an important role in accounting for various phonological phenomena observed cross-linguistically, and studies have shown its importance in promoting reading abilities. However, in the case of Tokyo Japanese, the role of the syllable is inconspicuous compared to the mora unit. This is due to the fact that in practice, the syllable often overlaps with the mora, exceptions arising from the syllables that contain the so-called ‘special moras’, i.e. the heavy syllables containing two moras. Traditionally, the main focus of attention in Japanese had been laid on different behaviours observed between the plain ‘normal’ moras and the ‘special’ moraic phonemes. However, in recent years, studies conducted have been focused on the different phonological patterning observed within the moraic phonemes themselves. In order to better understand the characteristics of these moraic phonemes, we report on our findings based on reversal tasks administered to elementary school students. The result of the experiment suggests that the degree of independency of these moraic phonemes in terms of phonological make-up seems to have an effect on the error patterns observed.

Vowel Epenthesis in Arabic Loanwords in Hausa

<p>Vowel epenthesis is discussed in this paper as a phonological process utilized to avoid codas in Arabic loanwords in Hausa language in light of Optimality Theory (OT), as an analytical framework, even though this language permits codas in heavy syllables of the form CVC (Caron, 2011). This process results in having disyllabic, trisyllabic, or qadri-syllabic words (words with four syllables) depending on the forms of Arabic loanwords as well as mono-syllabic words with final bi-consonant clusters. This study primarily relies on extant literature including theses, books, articles. Furthermore, the authors’ intuition is crucially deemed the judge on the facts of the data . This paper concludes that codas in Arabic loanwords in Hausa motivate vowel epenthesis either once or twice, depending on the forms of words; i.e. disyllabic or monosyllabic. Also, the number of vowel insertion depends on the number of consonants in the coda postion, i.e. /CVCC/→ vowel epenthesis→ [CVC.C<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">V</span></strong>] or [CV.C<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">V</span></strong>.C<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">V</span></strong>].</p>

The stability of word stress across Mixean languages

<p>Word stress patterns have been widely discussed for individual languages and in typological work (Van der Hulst 2010), but there are very few comparative studies within language families and across dialects. This paper examines stress patterns in Mixean varieties and how they relate to the phonological distinctions among these varieties. The term ‘variety’ is applied here as in a number of cases it has yet to be determined whether a variety constitutes its own language or a dialect.</p><p>Word stress does not vary in Mixean languages, always falling on the rightmost heavy root syllable, but roots often represent the only heavy syllable(s) in a word. As a result, syllable weight plays only a minimal role in stress assignment. Rather, the stress system rests upon edge-orientation and morphological conditioning. If it relied to a greater extent on the phonological structure of words, some deviation would be expected, given that variation among Mixean languages is primarily phonologically based. This paper demonstrates how weight-sensitive stress patterns can remain stable across related languages even in light of major phonological differences.</p>

Condicions prosòdiques i minimitat en el tipus reduplicatiu «puput»

The purpose of this paper is to give a description of one of the Catalan reduplication processes: the reduplication of one light syllable at the left edge of the word. This process exhibits some prosodic conditions in the output as well as in the input. The input must be one heavy syllable, and the output cannot exceed two syllables. Both are subject to Minimality: base words contain minimally one foot, reduplicative words contain maximally one foot. The reduplicative template is a light syllable, its segmental melody being mapped from the base. The description of this process provides evidence for a templatic approach within Prosodic Morphology.

Amharic Infixing Reduplication Targets Heavy Syllables

UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2014) Amharic infixing reduplication targets heavy syllables Hannah Sande January 2, 2015 Introduction Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia, has a crosslinguistically unique infixing reduplication pattern. The plural marker on adjectives and the iterative marker on verbs are reduplicative infixes which target heavy syllables. This means these infixes can only surface in words containing heavy syllables. Adjectives without heavy syllables must find an alternative way to express plural agreement with a plural head noun, and iterative phrases containing a verb without a heavy syllable must find an alternative means of expressing iterativity. Here I describe the infixing reduplication system in Amharic and demonstrate that the target of infixation in Amharic further illuminates the typology of infix- ation pivots as presented by Yu (2007, 2003). Yu claims that infixes target linear, segmental, or prosodic positions that every word is likely to have, specifically word edges, and prominent positions (Yu 2003:193). Yu proposes two competing pres- sures determining infix location the edge and prominent infix positions we see crosslinguistically. First, the Salient Pivot Hypothesis (Yu 2007:9) states that phonological infixes target psycholinguistically or phonetically salient positions. Second is the idea that infix sites are more reliable if more words possess that site (Yu 2003:195). These two pressures work together to ensure that infixes surface in salient positions present in most words. Amharic reduplication targets not an edge or the most prominent position in a word; it targets heavy syllables, which are not present in every word. Thus, based on the data presented throughout this paper I propose a constraint-based account of reduplicative infixation in Amharic (Prince, 1995), and I posit a modification to Yu (2007)’s list of possible infixation targets. Amharic is spoken by 21,600,000 people in Ethiopia and another 200,000 out- side of Ethiopia. Unless otherwise specified, the data presented in this paper comes from original work with two native speakers of Amharic from September

Reanalyzing final consonant extrametricality

Many languages, including Norwegian, exhibit CVC weight asymmetry, where CVC is heavy but behaves as light word-finally. This asymmetry is proposed to be motivated by facts of phonetic length and human perception. A production experiment in Norwegian shows a parallel proportional increase for the rimes of heavy syllables across positions. A theory of weight is advanced in which a syllable shape in a given position is only heavy if it is, on average, sufficiently proportionally longer than the rime of a CV syllable in the same position. While a CVC syllable reaches this proportional increase threshold non-finally, it fails to do so word-finally. Final lengthening affects word-final syllables, causing there to be a smaller proportional increase between the rime of a final CV and final CVC. A further study finds perception to behave as predicted; that is, larger raw increases are needed to reach a sufficient length for word final syllables to be categorized as heavy. The proportional increase theory of weight provides a phonetically and perceptually motivated explanation for CVC weight asymmetry.

The odd-parity input problem in metrical stress theory

Under the weak layering approach to prosodic structure (Itô & Mester 1992), the requirement that output forms be exhaustively parsed into binary feet, even when the input contains an odd-number of syllables, results in the odd-parity input problem, which consists of two sub-problems. The odd heavy problem is a pathological type of quantity-sensitivity where a single odd-numbered heavy syllable in an odd-parity output is parsed as a monosyllabic foot. The even output problem is the systematic conversion of odd-parity inputs to even-parity outputs. The article examines the typology of binary stress patterns predicted by two approaches, symmetrical alignment (McCarthy & Prince 1993) and iterative foot optimisation (Pruitt 2008, 2010), to demonstrate that the odd-parity input problem is pervasive in weak layering accounts. It then demonstrates that the odd-parity input problem can be avoided altogether under the alternative structural assumptions of weak bracketing (Hyde 2002).

<i>The sound structure of English: An introduction</i> (review)

Reviewed by: The sound structure of English: An introduction Marie Ploquin Chris McCully. 2009. The sound structure of English: An introduction. Cambridge Introductions to the English Language. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. viii + 233. The sound structure of English is meant to be an introductory textbook in phonetics and phonology requiring no prior knowledge of the topic. The eleven chapters of the book take the beginner from noticing contrastive features of consonants to understanding phonological theories. The text is reader-friendly and engages the student with active learning techniques, such as easy analyses, exercises, and analogies. Each chapter starts with a useful summary of notions and ends with exercises, a list of key terms, and further reading suggestions. Chapter 1, the introduction, begins with a discussion of the difference between the written and the spoken systems of English, for instance by drawing the reader’s attention to homophones and digraphs pronounced as single sounds. It continues with the notions of speech as a system, an explanation of the difference between accent and dialect, as well as phonology and phonetics. Chapters 2 to 4 deal with consonants. Chapter 2 presents a thorough discussion of contrastiveness and introduces the notions of sounds and noise. The discussion leads to the IPA, minimal pairs, sound distribution, and to the idea of consonant classification, which is the subject of Chapter 3. In this chapter, the author takes the reader through the notions of voicing, place, and manner to (re)create a consonant classification. Chapter 4 deals with the distribution of consonants, namely complementary, contrastive, or restricted distributions, and the concept of allophony. These notions are then used to identify whether the glottal stop is an allophone of /t/. The syllable is the topic covered in Chapters 5 to 7. As the basic structure (onset, nucleus, coda) of the syllable was introduced in Chapter 4, Chapter 5 takes a closer look at vowels as the nucleus of the syllable and their distribution in stressed and unstressed syllables. This leads to the discussion of monosyllabic content words and function words (referred to as “lexical” and “non-lexical” here). This chapter ends with a discussion of stress in compound nouns as well as primary and secondary [End Page 162] stress. Chapter 6 resumes the discussion of syllable structure to introduce the notions of rhyme and sonority. The chapter concludes with an overview of the typology and universals of syllable structure. The last chapter on syllables takes the discussion of syllable structure further by elaborating on the structure of the onset, the coda, and the nucleus. This chapter also discusses light and heavy syllables and explains the Principle of Maximal Onset and the notion of ambisyllabicity. Chapters 8 to 10 focus on vowels. A substantial part of Chapters 8 and 9 is used to establish the inventory of short and long vowels, respectively. In Chapter 8, the comparison of thirteen varieties of English is used to reconstruct the vowel trapezium. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the phonological status of the schwa. Chapter 9 deals with long vowels, including diphthongs. It resumes the discussion of long vowels and diphthongs having two X-slots in the nucleus, introduces the notion of “pure vowels” and the question of whether the second X should be considered a consonant or a vowel. Once the inventory of long vowels is established, the production of diphthongs is looked at across a few varieties of English. The chapter ends with a brief description of triphthongs. Chapter 10 presents diachronic and synchronic variations on vowels, covering topics such as the Great Vowel Shift, splits and mergers, asymmetries, and rhoticity. The final chapter of the book covers several theoretical approaches to the study of the sound structure of English, namely generative phonology, Distinctive Feature Theory, and Optimality Theory. Guiding the reader through a discussion of coda-final consonants, the author introduces the notion and use of distinctive features. This leads him to introduce, with examples of assimilation, the notions of phonological rules and of generative phonology. At the end of the chapter, Optimality Theory is applied in three case studies: neutralisation (syllable-final consonant devoicing in Dutch), onsets (structure of syllable onsets in English), and...

The Role of the Syllable in the Segmentation of Cairene Spoken Arabic

The syllable as a perceptual unit has been investigated cross linguistically. In Cairene Arabic syllables fall into three categories, light CV, heavy CVC/CVV and superheavy CVCC/CVVC. However, heavy syllables in Cariene Arabic have varied weight depending on their position in a word, whether internal or final. The present paper investigates the role of the syllable in the segmentation of Cariene Arabic. It reports a psycholinguistic study; syllable monitoring that was conducted on 32 Egyptian Arabic native speakers to examine the perceptual role of the syllable in spoken connected language. Theoretical phonological studies have identified Cairene Arabic as a stress-timed language; however, psycholinguistic studies providing evidence for this theoretical finding are scarce. The present study which is a cross modal (visual and auditory) counterbalanced design, gives evidence for the role of the (CVC) syllable in the segmentation of Cairene spoken language.

The transition from the core vowels to the following segments in Japanese children who stutter: The second, third and fourth syllables

, Syllable weight and phonological encoding in Japanese children who stutter. Japanese Journal of Special Education, 44, 451–462; 2008, Syllable weight and frequency of stuttering: Comparison between children who stutter with and without a family history of stuttering. Japanese Journal of Special Education, 45, 437–445; 2009, Difference in frequency of stuttering between light and heavy syllables in the production of monosyllables: From the viewpoint of phonetic transition. The Japanese Journal of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, 50, 116–122 (in Japanese)) proposed the hypothesis that in Japanese the transition from the core vowels (CVs) to the following segments affected the occurrence of stuttering. However, the transition we investigated was in the first syllables only, and the effect of the transition in second, third and fourth syllables was not addressed. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the transition from the CVs in the second, third and fourth syllables affected the occurrence of stuttering. The participants were 21 Japanese children. A non-word naming task and a non-word reading task were used. The frequency of stuttering was not significantly different where the number of transitions from the CVs differed on either task. These results suggest that the transition from the CVs in the second, third and fourth syllables does not have a significant effect on the occurrence of stuttering in Japanese.

The Effects of Heavy Syllable Position and Accentual Pattern on the Perception of Japanese Special Moras by L2 Learners of Japanese

The Effects of Heavy Syllable Position and Accentual Pattern on the Perception of Japanese Special Moras by L2 Learners of Japanese

A reanalysis of loanword tone in NK

This study reviews the previous works on loanword tonology of NK and presents a better analysis of it. Chung (2000) and Kenstowicz & Sohn (2001) are found to miss two important points. For one thing, both works have no way to provide an attested tone [HL] to a group of two-syllable words like [syam.phu] ‘shampoo’ consisting of a closed syllable followed by a light syllable. This group has been treated as the same as a default penultimate tone group, which consists of light syllables and forms a bimoraic trochaic foot at the end of a word such as [de.mo] ‘demo’ [HL] or [si.na.ri.o] ‘scenario’ [LLHL]. It is claimed in this study that these two [HL]’s stem from different sources and that there should be a specific constraint taking care of this difference in syllable weight in two-syllable words. For another, both the previous works do not give a proper tonal description to words with more than one heavy syllable, especially when heavy syllables appear in a row at the end of words: [LHL] in words like [wa.siŋ.thon] ‘Washington’ or [khi.rin.thon] ‘Clinton.’ The interaction of constraints dealing with heavy syllables and preventing a uniform application of the higher constraints is shown to provide a more accurate analysis of loanword tone in NK.

Stress Pattern Preference in Spanish-Learning Infants: The Role of Syllable Weight.

As a result of exposure, infants acquire biases that conform to the rhythmic properties of their native language. Previous lexical stress preference studies have shown that English- and German-, but not French-learning infants, show a bias toward trochaic words. The present study explores Spanish-learning infants' lexical stress preferential patterns and the role of syllable weight at 9 months of age. Spanish is a syllable-timed language with no vowel reduction and variable stress. Around 50% of the word types in Spanish are disyllabic, with a superior proportion of trochees than iambs (60% and 40%, respectively). Experiment 1 with CV.CV pseudo-words failed to reveal a clear trochaic bias in 9-month-old Spanish-learning infants. However, when preference was explored with items containing a heavy syllable (CVC.CV and CV.CVC, respectively), both a trochaic (Experiment 2) and an iambic preference (Experiment 3) could be elicited. These results suggest that knowledge about the close and highly regular link between heavy syllables and stress assignment in Spanish can be easily acquired and determines infants' preference at 9 months of age, while for CV.CV items, the trochaic bias appears to be weak. Our results broaden the current knowledge on the factors that determine the emergence of rhythmic biases.

The role of acoustic cues in the development of (non-) target-like second-language prosodic representations

This study investigates the acquisition of English (primary) word stress by native speakers of Canadian French, with focus on the trochaic foot and the alignment of its head with heavy syllables. L2 learners and native English speakers produced disyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense nouns. The participants with consistent stress patterns were grouped according to their prosodic grammar, and their productions were analyzed acoustically. The results indicate that the L2 learners who failed to align the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized stress with higher pitch. Conversely, the L2 learners who aligned the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized non-initial stress by lengthening the syllable. Surprisingly, the native speakers produced higher pitch on the initial syllable irrespective of stress, and they used length to realize stress on the heavy syllable. These findings suggest that L2 learners may have reached different prosodic grammars as a result of attending to distinct acoustic cues to English stress.