Word-initial geminates and stress in Pattani Malay

In quantity-sensitive stress languages, syllable weight is typically determined by looking at the rhyme only. The location of stress in these languages depends on syllable weight, and hence, the onset never influences the placement of stress. This has long been considered to be a linguistic universal. However, recent phonological studies reveal the existence of languages in which geminate onsets can influence syllable weight as relevant to phonological phenomena other than stress. This predicts the existence of languages in which geminate onsets influence stress placement. In this squib we introduce Pattani Malay, a language in which geminate onsets seem to behave exactly in this fashion. We suggest that the Pattani Malay data are of crucial importance to the discussion on the possibility of onset weight. At the end of this squib, we discuss some theoretical consequences and sketch a possible analysis of the Pattani Malay stress rule in Optimally Theory.

[1]  Robert Blust,et al.  Nasals and nasalization in Borneo , 1997 .

[2]  Michele E. Hart.  The Moraic Status of Initial Geminates in Trukese , 1991 .

[3]  W. Shipley.  The Phonemes of Northeastern Maidu , 1956, International Journal of American Linguistics.

[4]  Julie Levin.  A metrical theory of syllabicity , 1985 .

[5]  Susanne Gahl.  Syllable onsets as a factor in stress rules: the case of Mathimathi revisited , 1996 .

[6]  Robert Blust,et al.  Notes on Berawan consonant gemination , 1995 .

[7]  S. Davis,et al.  Syllable onsets as a factor in stress rules , 1988, Phonology.

[8]  Arthur S. Abramson,et al.  The perception of word-initial consonant length: Pattani Malay , 1986, Journal of the International Phonetic Association.

[9]  Elizabeth Hume,et al.  Non-moraic geminates in Leti , 1998, Phonology.

[10]  Rob Goedemans,et al.  Putting the Mathimathi stress rule in its proper perspective , 1997 .

[11]  Stuart Davis,et al.  On the representation of initial geminates , 1999, Phonology.

[12]  P. Smolensky,et al.  Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar , 2004 .

[13]  Larry M. Hyman.  A theory of phonological weight , 1985 .

[14]  John Hajek,et al.  Taba and Roma: clusters and geminates in two Austronesian languages , 1999 .

[15]  M. Halle,et al.  An essay on stress , 1987 .

[17]  The prosody-morphology interface: On the moraic representation of underlying geminates: evidence from Prosodic Morphology , 1999 .

[18]  Bruce P. Hayes.  Compensatory Lengthening in Moraic Phonology , 1989 .