Initial geminates in Leti: Consequences for moraic theory

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Estonian word prosody on the Procrustean bed of morae

The paper analyses existing moraic conceptions of Estonian quantity. Main features of functional, generative and phonetically-instructed moraic accounts of Estonian are considered. In most generative accounts, morae simultaneously represent several layers of functionally and structurally diverse information. This brings along a considerable increase in formal analytical machinery and internal controversies. In a structural functional framework, morae can be used to formalise the prosodic contrast of long and short stressed syllables in Estonian. Its relevance is seen in actual functioning of the prosodic system. This contrast is built upon the segmental contrast of short and long phonemes and, in turn, serves as a basis for the contrast of two distinctive foot accents, light and heavy. As an example, a formal morphonological algorithm of calculating Estonian foot accents, which also shows the place of the syllable weight contrast, is proposed

Exploring text-to-tune alignment of Japanese special moras in “happy birthday to you”

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Bilinguals' and second language learners' knowledge of Japanese syllable structure

The acquisition of second language phonology has been commanding researchers' attention in recent years. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to this area with a study on Japanese as a second language. The thesis explores both the development of phonological competence by post-puberty second language learners and the end state of pre-puberty bilingual acquisition. Reviewing the literature on the theoretical aspects of mora, syllables and syllable structure, we see that the mora is distinctive and plays vital role in Japanese phonology. We next look at the acquisition theories proposed in recent years, and adopt a Universal Grammar-based approach. Comparing first, bilingual and second language acquisition, three research hypotheses are presented: 1) the Mora Assignment Hypothesis, 2) L2 phonological Acquisition and Age Onset Hypothesis, and the 3) Quality and Quantity of Input Hypothesis. To test these hypotheses, a study was designed involving 24 bilingual children and adults, and 94 adult L2 learners of Japanese at varying levels of proficiency. The results provide evidence to support all three research hypotheses. First the data show that the both English-dominant bilinguals and second language learners at all levels deleted morae and all but the beginning second language learners added morae in oral and written production tasks, indicating non-native competence with respect to morae. In addition, learners attempt to preserve the overall mora count. Since English is not a mora sensitive language, the mora conservation exhibited here is from their Japanese. The learners, including English-dominant bilinguals, first become sensitive to the mora and only at a later stage assign segments to the correct mora slot. The difference in performance between English-dominant bilinguals and Japanese-dominant bilinguals was such that by the age of eight, those who had spent more years in Japan demonstrated native phonological competence, whereas the English-dominant bilinguals' performance pointed to non-native competence. With respect to the second and third hypotheses, results from the bilinguals indicate that in addition to age of onset, the amount of exposure to a second language must be taken into account as a factor influencing ultimate attainment. The study also reveals strong influence of literacy in both oral and written production of Japanese

Sonority-driven stress and vowel reduction in Uyghur

A number of authors have argued that sonority differences among vowels may interact with weight-sensitive stress placement (e.g. Kenstowicz 1994, 1997; de Lacy 2006). In previous work on sonority-sensitivity, variable stress placement has usually been assumed. In this paper, I examine the role of sonority in Uyghur, a language with fixed stress. I argue that sonority is encoded as a weight distinction in the language, which drives asymmetric lengthening of word-final high vowels. I demonstrate that a mora-based analysis also offers insight into medial vowel raising in the language, and sketch out an Optimality theoretic account of the data. Findings from this study support the recent claim made by Shih & de Lacy (2019) that sonority differences are only indirectly available to the grammar in the form of weight distinctions

An exploration of minimal and maximal metrical feet

This thesis presents a principled theory of bounded recursive footing. Building on previous research on metrical stress, and couched within the framework of Prosodic Hierarchy Theory, I argue that the rehabilitation of recursive feet in phonological representations leads to an improvement of our theory of prosody. I investigate the major driving forces that may cause recursion at the foot level and demonstrate that reference to recursive and non-recursive feet in various related and unrelated languages (e.g. Wargamay, Yidiɲ, Chugach, English, Dutch, German, Gilbertese, Seneca, Ryukyuan, Tripura Bangla, Cayuvava) allows us to provide a unified account of a wide range of prosodically-conditioned phenomena which would otherwise remain unexplained. In particular, I demonstrate that the assignment of binary and ternary stress, certain tonal distributions, some puzzling cases of vowel lengthening, consonant fortition, vowel reduction and consonant weakening all clearly benefit from recursion-based analyses. In arguing for the need for recursive feet in phonological representations, I identify new strength relations in prosodic systems. Besides the well-established strength dichotomy between the head of a foot (i.e. the strong branch of a foot) and the dependent of a foot (i.e. its weak branch), I show that languages may distinguish between further metrical prominence positions. These additional required positions do not need to be stipulated as they come for free in a framework that allows recursion at the level of the foot

Variable Pitch Realization of Unparsed Moras in Suzhou Chinese: Evaluation Through F0 Trajectory Simulation and Classification

This study aims to tease apart two proposals regarding the phonetic realization of toneless TBUs: that they are realized with default (often L) tones (Yip 2002; Zhang 2016), or that they stay without phonological tones and surface as interpolated pitch between tonal targets (Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988; Zhang et al. 2019). The original fieldwork data of toneless moras in Suzhou Chinese (Northern Wu) demonstrated considerable variation in toneless realization, both across- and within-speaker. Assessed by the simulation & classification framework of Shaw and Kawahara (2018), some speakers more frequently used interpolation between tones (e.g., high level between Hs, low rising between L and H), while others realized the toneless mora with a relatively low pitch regardless of the tonal context. In addition, tonal contexts also affected how toneless moras were realized, with more interpolation when the toneless moras were surrounded by two Hs, and more default L insertion when the mora was preceded by L and followed by H. There was no unified way of toneless realization in Suzhou, much like a model of probablistic/variable phonological process would predict (Coetzee & Pater 2011; Coetzee & Kawahara 2013)

Junctural Alignment in Kyoto Japanese Compound Nouns

Descriptively, in Tokyo Japanese compound words whose second member measures up to four moras in length, compound accent is placed on the syllable immediately preceding or following the boundary, or "juncture," between compound members. The length of the second member of the compound determines which of the two possible syllables is accented. Kubozono (1995) proposes an analysis with a constraint which requires that compound accent be aligned with the juncture. However, Ito and Mester (2018) account for compound accent location without reference to the juncture.Kyoto Japanese compound accent placement is similar to that of Tokyo Japanese (Nakai 2002) with a crucial difference: compound accent is placed on the mora, not the syllable, immediately preceding or following the juncture. This results in a discrepancy in which compound accent is placed on the first mora of a heavy syllable in some cases and on the second mora of a heavy syllable in other cases. I demonstrate that this discrepancy makes alignment to the juncture indispensable for Kyoto Japanese and that general left and right alignment constraints relativized to three levels of recursive word (maximal, minimal, any) cannot by themselves place compound accent in the correct location in all cases