Multiple syncope

[Max W Wheeler]

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Do colleagues share my hunch that a syncope/apocope process (loss of
syllabic nucleus) cannot affect, at the same time, more than one
syllable in a foot? That is, for example,
 
        *'CVCVCV > 'CVC(C)
 
 
(It may be that `foot' is not always the correct domain for this
`constraint'.)
 
Of course, over time, successive syncope processes may remove several
nuclei (e.g. Latin uetulum > French /vjej/ `old').
 
Or, if you don't share my hunch, have you got examples where more than
one nucleus is lost from a foot as part of the same process?
 
I would also be glad to hear of references to relevant theoretical
discussions, or data.
 
Max Wheeler
 
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Max W. Wheeler <maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1273 678975; fax: +44 (0)1273 671320
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