<OT> New Posting: ROA-747

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

ROA 747-0605

Norwegian stress and quantity: The implications of loanwords

Curt Rice <curt.rice at hum.uit.no>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=747


Abstract:
Disyllabic Norwegian words characteristically have an initial syllable 
which is stressed and heavy and a final syllable which is unstressed 
and light. Adopting a moraic theory of syllabic representation, the 
weight of the initial syllable can be realized either with a bimoraic 
vowel or with a monomoraic vowel followed by a moraic consonant. 
Monosyllabic words also show variation in the length of the vowel and 
the coda consonant. The native data are supplemented with loanword 
data, leading to the claim that the grammar of Norwegian must account 
for patterns with stress on the ultima, the penult or the antepenult. 
Stress can be assigned to both the core disyllabic and monosyllabic 
patterns by constructing a trochee; these patterns are equally well 
predicted by constructing such a foot at either the right or left edge 
of the word, and indeed both analyses have been advocated. The stress 
patterns of loanwords, however, reveal additional details about the 
assignment of stress, and sort out some unresolvable ambiguities 
arising when just considering the native vocabulary. These facts form 
the basis for advocating a right-edge oriented analysis of stress in 
Norwegian. The solution developed here avoids diacritics for signaling 
the location of stress, but appeals instead to moraic specification, 
which is independently necessary to characterize the length constrasts 
in the consonants.

Comments: To appear in Lingua
Keywords: Norwegian, Loanwords, Optimality theory, stress, syllable 
structure
Areas: Loanword phonology
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=747