Iambicity without stress in Kera

The Chadic language Kera (Ebert 1979; Pearce 1998, 2003) exhibits iambicity without stress. This paper argues that feet are constructed over a combination of light and heavy syllables, and that deletion and lengthening of vowels takes place as necessary to form the iambic feet (–) and ( –). We will consider inputs of the form /CVCV/, where in phrase-medial position, the final vowel is deleted, giving a monosyllabic, heavy foot (CVC). In phrase-final position, the second vowel undergoes iambic lengthening, giving (CVCV:). As well as lengthening and deletion, other clues to the iambic nature of Kera are found in the system of vowel allophony and the domains of vowel harmony and tonal/voice spreading. We will conclude that the foot structure is a central part of Kera phonology, and that Kera adds to the list of languages with foot structure in the absence of overt stress.

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