[Lingtyp] Language change and foot structure

[David Gil]

Yes, indeed; and in fact, the iambicity of southern Sino-Tibetan and of 
western Indonesia form part of the same large geographical zone of 
iambicity.  (Himmelmann and Kaufman  presented a paper on this at the 
recent ICAL conference.)

On 19/08/2021 04:57, Randy J. LaPolla wrote:
> Hi Matt,
> Similar to what David mentions, although it isn’t a single language, 
> within Sino-Tibetan there is a similar geographic difference, with 
> northern languages tending towards trochaic and southern languages 
> tending towards iambic, which we assume was due to influence from the 
> Austro-Asiatic languages in the south.
>
> Randy
> ——
> Professor Randy J. LaPolla（罗仁地), PhD FAHA
> Center for Language Sciences
> Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences
> Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus
> A401, Muduo Building, #18 Jinfeng Road, Zhuhai City, China
>
>
>
>
>
>> On 18 Aug 2021, at 6:52 PM, David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de 
>> <mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Matt,
>>
>> In colloquial Malay/Indonesian, some dialects are iambic while others 
>> are trochaic; with just a few exceptions this follows a geographical 
>> pattern, with final stress to the west, penultimate stress to the 
>> east.  So presumably the kind of shift you are looking for must have 
>> taken place here, in the course of the diversification of 
>> Malay/Indonesian dialects.
>>
>> As for the directionality of the shift: given that Malay originated 
>> in the western part of the archipelago, where foot structure is 
>> iambic, one might speculate that this was the original pattern, and 
>> that as the language spread eastwards, some varieties switched to 
>> trochaic, most likely under the influence of the local substrate 
>> languages, many of which have trochaic structure.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>> On 17/08/2021 22:07, Matthew Windsor wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> Is anyone aware of a language where metrical/rhythmic structure has 
>>> clearly shifted from having right-headed (iambic) feet to 
>>> left-headed (trochaic) feet or vice versa? I’m studying a language 
>>> variety where this seems to be the case. It’s a quantity-sensitive 
>>> system, so the change mainly affects strings of light syllables. Any 
>>> examples or suggested resources would be helpful, thanks!
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>>
>>> 	
>>>
>>> 	
>>>
>>> 	
>>>
>>> *Matt Windsor*
>>>
>>> Linguistics & Translation Facilitator | SIL Americas, North
>>>
>>> Cell: 1-807-631-6656
>>>
>>>
>>> ᐅᐦᐅᐁᐧᐃᐦᑭᑐᐃᐧᐣᑮᐄᐧᔮᐦᓯᐃᐧᒦᓇᑭᑮᐱᐄᐧᒋᐊᔮᒥᑯᓈᐣ.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 	
>>>
>>> 	
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Lingtyp mailing list
>>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> -- 
>> David Gil
>>
>> Senior Scientist (Associate)
>> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
>> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
>> Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
>>
>> Email:gil at shh.mpg.de
>> Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
>> Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org 
>> <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
-- 
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20210819/e160bc9b/attachment.htm>