BL accent patterns. The real results.

[Rory Larson]

Ø > Now I'm wondering what your model is for the accent when the *GL or *BL is preceded by a syllable.  Second syllable accent would land on a squeezed out schwa, which presumably nobody wants to accent.  If the accent then jumps to the primordial third syllable (as I think it would-correct me if I'm mistaken), wouldn't that support the view that speakers at that point consider primordial third syllable to be synchronic second syllable?

There is no "schwa" there phonologically.  That's confusing phonology with phonetics.  So of course the GL or BL syllable gets accent if there's another prefix.  But what I'm saying is that the CL syllable gets the accent anyway.

Ø

Let me try re-asking that question more concretely.  Without loss of generality, let's take the *BL cluster.

First, I think the *BL cluster is underlyingly a syncopation of the first syllable of *wv-rv in Proto-Siouan, correct?  So *wv-rv => *w-rv => *BLv ?

Next, I assume Proto-Siouan had second syllable accent.  Then *wv-rv-cv is accented *wv-rV-cv.  This syncopates to *w-rV-cv => *BLV-cv, with accent on the vowel immediately following L, aka *r, where it always was.  Here, I think we're on the same page, and you've shown good evidence from Dhegiha to support this.

Now what happens when we take the same sequence and add a preceding syllable: *cv-wv-rv-cv?  By second syllable accent, the vowel between *w and *r gets the accent:
                *cv-wV-rv-cv

If the second syllable with the accent is syncopated out: *cv-wV-rv-cv => *cv-w-rv-cv => *cv-BLv-cv, I don't see how the "BL syllable" can get the accent, because there is no vowel there to accent.  I can think of just three possibilities here:


1.       Accent shifts to the morphophonological third syllable: *cv-wV-rv-cv => *cv-w-rV-cv => *cv-BLV-cv



2.       Accent shifts to the first syllable: *cv-wV-rv-cv => *cV-w-rv-cv => *cV-BLv-cv



3.       This can't happen, because if the intervening syllable is accented, syncopation does not occur.


Do you have a sense of which of these three possibilities should happen in the *cv-wV-rv-cv case?  Or if the outcome is something else that I haven't been able to think of, can you describe what that is?

Thanks,
Rory

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