7.943, Sum: moraic languages (2 ed.)
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LINGUIST List: Vol-7-943. Fri Jun 28 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 259
Subject: 7.943, Sum: moraic languages (2 ed.)
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1)
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 13:56:38 +0200
From: s945025 at ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp (Kawagashira Nobuyuki)
Subject: summary: moraic languages (2 ed.)
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 13:56:38 +0200
From: s945025 at ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp (Kawagashira Nobuyuki)
Subject: summary: moraic languages (2 ed.)
Dear subsribers
I posted a query for mora-time languages several months ago.
I got many helpful information from contributors.
I greatly appreciated them.
I summarized the list of mora-timed languages by contributors.
This is the second summary of moraic languages.
(1) CONTRIBUTORS
Thank you very much to the following contributors.
Margaret Hall Dunn dunn at haskins.yale.edu
Tapani Salminen tasalmin at cc.helsinki.fi
Hartmut Haberland hartmut at ruc.dk
Steven Schaufele fcosws at prairienet.org
Kumiko Makihara kumiko at u.washington.edu
Pier Marco Bertinetto bertinet at sns.it
John E. Koontz koontz at boulder.nist.gov
Satoshi Uehara suehara at wellesley.edu
San Duanmu duanmu at snoopy.ling.lsa.umich.edu
Rick Mc Callister rmccalli at sunmuw1.muw.edu
Rod Johnson rcj at mail.msen.com
Allan R. King mccay at jet.es
Bruce Connell connellb at vax.ox.ac.uk
(2) WHAT IS MORAIC LANGUAGES
Mainly I felt that there are many ideas about moraic languages.
It is difficult to reach consensus for every scholars.
Rod Johnson wrote:
Moraic languages are those in which the mora plays a part in the
phonology or the metrical system.
> Kenneth Pike's _Phonetics_ (or perhaps _Phonemics_?) in
> the distinction between mora-timing and syllable-timing
> languages. There were a number of phonetic studies in the
> 1950s and 1960 attempting to either establish or deny the
> vailidty of the distinction, but it seems no definitive
> consensus was ever reached.
Rod Johnson wrote: Let me just point out, as a matter of terminology,
> that "mora-timing" does not mean "moraic". In a mora-timing
> language, each mora takes approximately the same time to
> pronounce--thus a heavy (2-mora) syllable will take twice as long as
> a light one. This phenomenon is also called "isochrony, and is
> mainly a phonetic one. "Moraic" is a phonological phenomenon, in
> which a language is sensitive to the heavy/light distinction,
> regardless of timing (especially in stress or accent). So a
> language could be moraic but not mora-timing. The two ideas are
> quite different.
(3) LIST OF MORAIC LANGUAGES
SANSKRIT
Steven Schaufele wrote:
Sanskrit is a mora-counting language in the same way that Latin and
Classical Greek are.
Short vowels count as 1 mora, long vowels as 2, and any consonant in
the coda (not only nasals) counts as 1 mora.
ra.t.na.m "jewel"
ya.jna.m "sacrifice" (acc.)
pr.thi.vi.i "earth"
sva.pa.tya.sya "handsome"
vi.kra.a.n.ti.m "victorious stride"
The critical distinction is between 1-mora syllables and syllables of
more than one mora; all traditional Sanskrit poetic prosody depends
upon this distinction between `light' and `heavy' syllables. Little
attention is paid to the distinction between 2-mora and 3-mora
syllables.
LATIN
Moraic features are similar to Sanskrit above.
CLASSICAL GREEK
ge.ra.i HLL "well"
lova lo.o.va HLL "bed"
diena di.e.na LLH "afternoon"
rytas ri.i.ta.s HLLL "morning"
ac^iu a.a.Cu.u HLLL "thank you"
labas la.a.ba.s LHLL "good"
lovys lo.o.vi.i.s LLLHL "tub"
vakaras va.a.ka.ra.s LHLLLLL "evening"
CLASSICAL ARABIC
JAPANESE (Standard Japanese)
SEN-EN se.N.e.N [see~ee~n] HLLL one thousand yen
SENNEN se.N.ne.N [see~nee~n] HLLL one thousand years
SEIEN se.e.e.N [se::e~n] LHHH cheering
SEINEN se.e.ne.N [se:nee~n] LHHH adolescent
SEQKEN se.Q.ke.N [se_kee~n] LHHH soap ([_] shows silence)
TEQSEN te.Q.se.N [tes:ee~n] LHHH iron wire
UMA u.ma [u-ma] LH horse (ordinary)
UMA N.ma [mma] LH horse (colloq., fast speech)
POKEQTO po.ke.Q.to [poke_to] LHLL pocket
Traditionally sokuon /Q/ is regarded as consonantal gemination.
This theory is true in sibilant gemination /s/ [s] and /sj/ [S].
TEQSEN te.Q.se.N [tes:ee~] LHHH iron wire
HAQSIja ha.Q.sja [haS:a] LHHH (train or bus) starts
But /Q/ is realized as silence before stops including affricates, /c/ [ts]
and /cj/ [tS].
MEQTU me.Q.cu [me_tsu-] HLL Mets(?): juice name
HAQTIjaKU ha.Q.cja.ku [ha_tSaku-] LHHH departure and arrival
/Q/ is usually realized as silence or duration of sibilant noise.
Phonetically it does not have a pitch information because its silence.
Maybe the previous vowel have the pitch information and a hearer phono-
gically recognizes that /Q/ has a high pitch.
KAQTA ka.Q.ta [ka_ta] HLL won
KAQTA ka.Q.ta [ka_ta] LHH bought
I think high pitch of /Q/ is suspectible.
Sokuon /Q/ is mainly devided into two phonetical realization:
a) silence before voiceless consonants and affricates.
b) voiceless sibilant before voiceless sibilant.
KILIVILA (KIRIWINA)
ba.la "I will go"
e.la "he/she goes"
a.m.be.sa "where"
ba.ki.u.m "I will do secretly"
bi.ka.tu.po.i.a.i.m.si "they will ask you"
m.se.'u "smoke"
ka.bi.ta.m "wisdom"
m.m.mo.ta "this (bundle)"
la.o.di.la "bush, jungle"
i.si.si.a.si "they stay (in a place)"
i.ka.tu.po.i.a.i.da.si "he asks us"
to.m.mo.ta "people"
Some East Oceanic Languages:
HAWAIIAN, FIJIAN
SIOUAN LANGUAGES (NORTH AMERICA):
DAKOTAN, OMAHA-PONCA, WINNEBAGO(HOCHANK), CROW
(4) QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGES AS A MORAIC
FINNISH
I and M. Hall Dunn agree Finnish is mora-timed. But T. Salminen,
P. M. Bertinetto disagree.
muta mu.ta HL
mutta mu.t.ta HLL but
muuta mu.u.ta HLL
muutta mu.u.t.ta HLLL earth (abl.)
CHINESE
San Duan wrote:
> In my opinion, Chinese is also mora-timed.
See references.
(5) REFERENCES
Definitions
Trubetzkoy, N.S. (1977)
_Grundzuege der Phonologie_ Vandenhoeck & ruprecht, Goettingen
Hayes, Bruce _Metrical Stress Theory_
Pike, Kenneth (1964)
_Phonetics: A critical analysis of phonetic theory and a
technic for the practical description of sounds_
The University of Michigan
Ilse Lehiste
Pier Marco Bertinetto (1989)
_Reflections on the dichotmy <stress> vs. <syllable-timing>_
Revue de Phonetique Appliquee n. 91-92-93
Cutler, Anne (1983)
_Prosody: Models and Measurements_ Springer Verlag
Kilivila (Kiriwina)
Senft, Gunter, (1952)
_Kilivila : the language of the Trobriand Islanders_
Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, c1986.
Series title: Mouton grammar library ; 3.
CHINESE
Duanmu, San. (1994)
_Syllabic weight and syllabic durations: A correlation
between phonology and phonetics_ Phonology 11.1: 1-24.
(6) SUMMARIZER'S COMMENTS
I think it take long time and effort to study moraness.
I have several qustions and suggestions to study it.
1) Viepoints:
I found some arguments or theories got confused with different
viewpoints auch as PHONETICAL, PHONOLOGICAL and MORPHOLOGICAL
ones.
2) Provability:
Is it possible to prove moraness by phonetical experiments?
For example, isochrony.
3) Usefulness:
Is it useful to categorize language by moraness?
Is this concept meaningful for phonological analysis?
4) Syllable and Mora:
How is the relationship between a syllable and a mora?
Are they exclusive concepts or overlapping entities?
5) Definition:
What are conditions (bases) to construct moraness?
6) Consensus:
Why cannot so many scholars reach to consensus about moraness?
Sincerely yours
KAWAGASHIRA Nobuyuki
s945025 at ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp
http://koryu3.statc.go.jp/~kawagasr/
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