Foot and Syllable Structure in Modern Icelandic

Bibliographic Data

ID20377751
AuthorsGregory K Iverson (University of Iowa), Courtenay A Kesterson (University of Iowa)
Year1989
Volume12
Issue1
Pages13-45
Publication date1989-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNordic Journal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0332-5865 • E-ISSN: 1502-4717
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0332586500001918
OpenAlexW2134845315
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited16

As is well known, vowel length in Modern Icelandic is in general predictable on the basis of syllable structure such that, in polysyllabic words, stressed vowels in open syllables are long, other vowels are short; in stressed monosyllables, however, vowels are long whether the syllable is open or closed by a single consonant, and short only when the syllable is closed by a consonant cluster. In contrast to the ‘final maximalistic’ strategy of Árnason (1980) and other unlikely syllabification schemes designed to unify these two patterns, we invoke Giegerich's (1985) characterization of foot structure as applied to German and English, according to which stressed monosyllables categorize metrically as disyllabic feet whose rightmost member is null. Thus, CVC structures are metrically /CV.CØ/, with the result that the generalization regarding vowel length in words of all types is simply that stressed vowels in open syllables are long, others short

Categorization · Consonant · Consonant cluster · Icelandic · Linguistics · Phonology · Phonotactics · Speech recognition · Syllabification · Syllable · Vowel · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Phonetics and Phonology Research

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