Conditions

No conditions could be found

Motivations

No motivations could be found

Related processes

a. Syllables divide into two groups, light and heavy, on the basis of the number of moras in the syllable. Syllables containing long vowels or short vowels followed by a consonant are heavy, all others are light. Two consonants are required to add a mora to a short-vowelled syllable, one in the coda and one in the onset of the next syllable. (Stonham, p.190)

b. Consonant clusters are not characteristic of Miwok. No more than two consonants ever appear together, and this only in medial position. Often, the two consonants are evidently brought together by suffixation or by metathesis. When the two consonants are formed at different points of articulation, the first is usually separately released, but not necessarily so. Two identical consonants occurring together form a long one. (Freeland, p. 2)

c. Stress is assigned to the first syllable of the word if it's heavy, if not, the second syllable is stressed and made heavy if it is not already so.

Symbols

cç = voiceless palatal affricate
ʃ = voiceless palato-alveolar fricative

Comments

Bibliography

• Callaghan, Catherine 1986. Miwok ablaut grades. Papers from the 1983, 1984, and 1985 Hokan-Penutian Languages Conference: 105-14 published as Occasional Papers in Linguistics 13, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University.
• Freeland, L. S. 1951. Language of the Sierra Miwok. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics, Memoir 6 of the International Journal of American Linguistics. Waverly Press: Baltimore.
• Stonham, John. 1990. Current Issues in Morphological Theory. PhD dissertation. Stanford University.