Quantity-sensitive stress and syllable weight in Paiwan
Quantity-sensitive stress and syllable weight in Paiwan

Summary/Abstract: This study reexamines the assignment of stress in the Paiwan language spoken in several central Paiwan villages, which differs from the other communalects in treating the central vowel, schwa /ə/, as a weak element with regards to the syllable and stress. Contrary to previous quality-sensitive analyses, this paper explores new data and argues for a quantity-sensitive account based on a variable weight system for closed syllables. It is shown that the inherently non-moraic coda consonants gain weight only to satisfy the requirement for an appropriate foot head. The special behavior of schwa in stress assignment also parallels to other phonological evidence in Paiwan such as its distributional restriction.

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