Rhythmic Stress in Tiriyo (Cariban

RHYTHMIC STRESS IN TIRIYÓ (CARIBAN) - Sérgio Meira -

RHYTHMIC STRESS IN TIRIYÓ (CARIBAN)

Sérgio Meira

Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, PA, Brazil

ABSTRACT. This paper describes the stress pattern of Tiriyó, a Cariban language of Northern

Brazil, and models it in Hayes’ 1995 Metric Stress framework; the result is very similar to that

already obtained by Hayes for the stress system of Hixkaryana, a related language. Some

comparatives notes on similar sistems in related languages constitute the final section.

1. Introduction. This paper is an attempt at a preliminary description of the rhythmic stress

pattern found in Tiriyó.1 Other Cariban languages are reported to have a similar (though not

always equal) system (cf. Abbott 1991 p.145-7 for Macushi, Derbyshire 1985 p.181 for

Hixkaryana; Gildea [pc] has found similar patterns in Kaxuyâna, Waiwái and Akuriyó; cf. also

apparently similar systems in Hoff 1968, p.71-93 and 93-104 [Carib of Surinam] and Hall 1988

[De’kwana]). Such systems have recently been analyzed in the framework of Metrical Stress

Theory (Hayes 1995). Hayes’ analysis of Hixkaryana stress provides the fundamental insight

which is used here to model similar phenomena in Tiriyó. At the end of this paper, a comparison

with similar stress systems in other Cariban languages is sketched.

2.1. The Rhythmic Pattern. Even a cursory look at a representative sample of Tiriyó vocabulary

cannot fail to reveal a regular pattern of alternating long and short vowels. In the table below, this

pattern is illustrated with words grouped according to their number of syllables (a double vowel

indicates length; high pitch is marked by an acute accent, while low pitch remains unmarked; the

intonation context is that of words pronounced in isolation).2


Table 1.

Tiriyó Words Grouped by Number of Syllables3

3 syllables. 4 syllables.

pa.wáá.na ‘friend’ a.ráá.wa.ta ‘monkey (sp.)’

ta.r.no ‘Tiriyó people’ ya.ráá.ma.ta ‘chin’

k.nóó.ro ‘macaw (sp.)’ t.páá.to.ro ‘straight, right’

si.páá.ri ‘fan, stingray’ ta.múú.tu.p ‘old man’

a.róó.k ‘tail, penis’ k.yáá.po.ko ‘toucan’

pe.réé.ru ‘butterfly’ we.káá.ra.ma ‘I gave it’

o.kóó.mo ‘wasp’ ma.póó.to.ma ‘you helped’

a.kúú.ri ‘agouti’ a.ríí.mi.na ‘electric eel’

pu.túú.p ‘head’ yi.púú.tu.p ‘my head’

su.náá.ri ‘cricket’ me.táá.t.ne ‘you all heard it’

a.ríí.we ‘crocodile’

ta.r.pi ‘monkey (sp.)’

.ríí.po ‘cooking stone’


.k.r.púú.k ‘giant river otter’ ma.póó.to.máá.t.ne ‘you all helped’


ka.náá.mi.t.k ‘tick’ e.káá.ra.máá.t.k ‘you all give it!’

wa.póó.to.máá.ne ‘I helped’ k.táá.po.tóó.ma.ti ‘we all help’

ne.múú.ri.ríí.ma ‘it wrinkled’ e.páá.na.máá.t.k ‘you all turn around!’

i.káá.pu.rúú.tu ‘cloud’

yi.yáá.ra.máá.ta ‘my chin’

k.w.tu.rúú.to ‘our (dual) talking’

yu.ráá.ka.núú.mu ‘I went for a walk’


yi.k.r.k.r.páá.m ‘I shivered’ k.táá.po.tóó.ma.póó.t.ne

e.káá.ra.máá.ta.t.k ‘you all go give it!’ ‘we all made him/her help’

a.póó.to.máá.ta.t.k ‘you all help!’

mi.múú.ri.ríí.ma.t.ne ‘you all crumpled it’

9 syllables

k.t.ta.póó.to.máá.po.t.ne ‘we all made him/her help us’

After examining the above data, the following generalization about the rhythmic pattern

can be made: counting from the beginning of the word, every second syllable has a long vowel

with high pitch, with the exception of the last syllable, which is never long or high.4 Note that

vowel length is not an inherent property of the word, since (as the following examples show) the

addition of a syllabic prefix creates a new starting point for the rhythmic pattern, which causes


different vowels of the same root to become long. In the following examples, a dot (.) is written

over syllables with short vowels and an x (x) over syllables with long vowels to facilitate

reading; hyphens indicate morpheme breaks.

. x . . x . .

(1) pa.kóó.ro /pakoro/ ‘house’ => yi.páá.ko.ro /yi-pakoro/ ‘my house’

. x . . x . .

(2) pa.wáá.na /pawana/ ‘friend’ => .páá.wa.na /-pawana/ ‘your friend’

. x . . . x . x .

(3) ya.ráá.ma.ta /yaramata/ ‘chin’ => i.yáá.ra.máá.ta /i-yaramata/ ‘his/her chin’

. x . . . x . x .

(4) a.ríí.mi.na /arimina/ ‘electric => k.yáá.ri.míí.na /k-y-arimina/ ‘our electric

eel’ eel’

As a last illustration, consider the following list of words, all derived from apoto ‘helper,

assistant’, in which length and tone in vowels of the root and affixes appear to be completely

determined by the rhythmic pattern.

. x .

(5) a.póó.to /apoto/ ‘helper, assistant’


. x . .

(6) ma.póó.to.ma /m-apoto-ma/ ‘you helped’

. x . x .

(7) k.táá.po.tóó.ma /kt-apoto-ma/ ‘the two of us

helped’

. x . x .

(8) ma.póó.to.máá.ti /m-apoto-ma-ti/ ‘you all help(ed)’

. x . x . .

(9) k.táá.po.tóó.ma.ti /kt-apoto-ma-ti/ ‘we all helped’

. x . x . .

(10) ma.póó.to.máá.po.ti /m-apoto-ma-po-ti/ ‘you all made

him/her help’

. x . x . x .

(11) k.táá.po.tóó.ma.póó.ti /kt-apoto-ma-po-ti/ ‘we all made

him/her help’

. x . x . x .

(12) ma.póó.to.máá.po.t.ne /m-apoto-ma-po-t-ne/ ‘you all made

him/her help’

. x . x . x . .

(13) k.táá.po.tóó.ma.póó.t.ne /kt-apoto-ma-po-t-ne/ ‘we all made

him/her help’


. x . x . x . x .

(14) k.t.ta.póó.to.máá.po.t.ne /kt-t-apoto-ma-po-t-ne/

‘we all made

him/her help us’

In view of the preceding data, there is a good correlation between vowel length and high

pitch.5 Such phonetic phenomena are known to be part of the stress systems of many languages,

which suggests that the rhythmic pattern observed in Tiriyó may be a result of its stress system.

At this point, the best approach apparently is to equate high pitch and vowel length with

secondary stress. The preceding generalization can now be understood as the assignment of

secondary stress to every second syllable from the beginning of the word, with the exception of

the last syllable; and secondary stress is realized as high pitch plus vowel length.6

2.2. Syllable Weight and Disturbances of the Rhythmic Stress Pattern. Usually, (C)V

syllables are considered as ‘light’ and (C)V syllables as ‘heavy’. However, it was implicitly

claimed in the above examples that, since vowel length can easily be predicted, all syllables are

underlyingly of type (C)V, although some of them are actually realized as (C)V. If the pattern

outlined above were true for all Tiriyó words, there would be no need for the concept of syllable

weight in the language, since all syllables would be treated equally by the stress rules.

Nevertheless, as will be seen below, the other syllable types that exist in Tiriyó interact with the

rhythmic stress pattern in a way that marks them as different from the underlying (C)V syllables

of the preceding examples. It then becomes meaningful to speak of underlying (C)V syllables as

‘light’ and of the other types as ‘heavy’ (cf. Hayes 1995:48-54 for a discussion of heavy and light

syllables as two categories treated differently by stress rules).


2.2.1. (C)VC Syllables. Let us first consider (C)VC syllables, in which the second consonant is

in Tiriyó either /h/ or a nasal, /m/ or /n/. In some languages, like Latin, (C)VC syllables are

treated as heavy by the stress rules; in other languages, like Lardil, they are treated as light. In

Tiriyó, as shown by the examples below, (C)VC syllables do not cause any change in the

rhythmic pattern if they occur in a position within the word where a syllable with a long vowel

would be generated anyway (i.e. any even-numbered syllable counting from the beginning of the

word); however, if a (C)VC syllable happens to occur in a non-final position where a syllable

with a short vowel would be expected, it does cause a disturbance (in the examples below, the

dot will mark syllables with a short vowel and low pitch, and the x will mark syllables with high

pitch).

. x . .

(15) me.ráh.t.ne /m-eraht-ne/ ‘you found him/her/it’

. x . x .

(16) me.ráh.t.ne /m-eraht-t-ne/ ‘you all found him/her/it’

. x x .

(17) k.néé.ráh.t /kn-eraht/ ‘s/he found him/her/it’

. x x . .

(18) k.néé.ráh.t.ti /kn-eraht-ti/ ‘s/he found them all’

. x x . x .

(19) k.néé.ráh.t.póó.ti /kn-eraht-po-ti/ ‘s/he made him/her find them all’


As can be seen in exs. 15-19, the syllable rah behaves like the long-vowel syllables

generated by secondary stress rules in that (a) it receives high pitch and (b) the rhythmic pattern

continues with an unstressed (i.e. light and low-pitched) syllable after it, which is exactly what

happens after the long-vowel syllables generated by secondary stress assignment. In exs. 15-16,

the syllable rah is in a position where a long-vowel syllable would be generated; after rah, the

rhythmic pattern continues exactly as usual. In exs. 17-19, the prefixation of kn- has put the

syllable rah in a position where a short-vowel syllable is expected; yet, the result is a word with

two heavy high-pitched syllables in sequence, after which the rhythmic pattern continues as

expected, with every second syllable counting from the last heavy syllable receiving secondary

stress (ex. 19). In other words, the syllable rah is being treated as if it was supposed to be always

stressed, regardless of its position within the word; secondary stress assignment continues after

rah as if rah had been one of the stressed syllables that it generates.

The examples below display the same kind of behavior for a (C)VN syllable (N = nasal

consonant):

. x x .

(20) mi.réé.pén.t /mi-repent/ ‘you paid him/her’

. x x . .

(21) mi.réé.pén.t.ne /mi-repent-ne/ ‘you paid him/her (long ago)’

. x x . x .

(22) mi.réé.pén.t.t.ne /mi-repent-t-ne/ ‘you all paid him/her (long ago)’


Again, the rhythmic stress pattern treats a syllable (this time, pen) as if it had to be

stressed in any position within the word, with secondary stress assignment continuing after it like

after any stressed syllable. Therefore, there is a class of syllables that does not behave like the

(C)V syllables in Table 1 and in exs. 1-13 with respect to secondary stress; this class can now be

called ‘heavy’, as opposed to the ‘light’ (C)V syllables.

2.2.2. (C)VV Syllables. Another source of disturbances are syllables with underlying diphthongs

(with (C)VV as their syllable cannon; (C)V will be used for syllables with underlyingly long

vowels (cf. Sec. 2.2.4) to keep the two cases distinct). Sequences of vocalic sounds are relatively

frequent in Tiriyó; the following are attested in the corpus at least once: /ae, ai, ao, au, ei, eu, oe,

oi, e,i, u,i, ui/. If these sequences form only one syllable, one may expect it to behave like

a heavy syllable, since it is not (C)V; if they do not form only one syllable, they will behave like

two inherently light syllables, i.e. one of them (either the first or the second, depending on their

position within the word) will be made long and high-pitched by secondary stress assignment.

x . .

(23) mái.t.ne /m-ait-ne/ ‘you pushed it (long ago)’

x . x .

(24) mái.t.t.ne /m-ait-t-ne/ ‘you all pushed it (long ago)’

. x . x .

(25a) k.tái.t.t.ne /kt-ait-t-ne/ ‘we all pushed it (long ago)’

(25b) * k.táá.i.t.t.ne


The rhythmic behavior of the vowel sequence /ai/ in exs. 23-25 above is that of a

diphthong within a single syllable, patterning with the heavy (C)VC syllables. In ex. 23 one sees

[mái.t.ne] instead of what one would expect if the vowel sequence /ai/ had a syllable boundary

/a.i/, i.e.*[ma.íí.t.ne]. Also, if the two vowels belonged to two different syllables, the addition of

a syllabic prefix kt- ‘1sg+2sg’ in (25) should cause the vowel of the second syllable /ta/ to

become long and that of the third syllable /i/ to remain short; moreover, the vowel of the fourth

syllable /t/ should also become long (cf. 25b). Nevertheless, the actual pronunciation is as

transcribed in 25a. In sum, the rhythmic pattern treats yai as a single heavy syllable. The

following examples show the same behavior as (25) for other VV combinations.

(26) ma.kóe.ka.t.ne /m-akoeka-t-ne/ ‘you all rowed (long ago)’

k.ne.ka.ráá.ma /kn--ekarama/ ‘s/he gave him/herself’

k.néu.r.póó.ti /kn-eur-po-ti/ ‘he made him bark at them all’

mi.kúi.ka.t.ne /mi-kuika-t-ne/ ‘you all swallowed it (long ago)’

.tói.ma.t.k /t-oima-t-k/ ‘you all get mixed!’

k.náe.ru.táá.to /kn-aeruta-to/ ‘they all made noise (long ago)’

k.pi.na.t.ne /k-pina-t-ne/ ‘we all got fat (long ago)’

t.táo.k.m.re /t-t-aokm-re/ ‘I hugged myself in vain’

2.2.3. (C)VVC Syllables. Closed syllables with diphthongs, i.e. syllables of the (C)VVC type,

also occur in Tiriyó, although not very frequently. When in non-final position, they are treated as

heavy, like (C)VC and (C)VV syllables.


x . .

(27) tem.pa.ne /t--empa-ne/ ‘I learned it’

. x . .

(28) k.tem.pa.ne /kt--empa-ne/ ‘we learned it’

. x .

(29a) k.tem.pa.t.ne /kt--empa-t-ne/ ‘we all learned it’

(29b) * k.t.ém.pa.t.ne

Exs. 27-29 show that tem has the behavior of a heavy syllable: it receives high pitch,

and secondary stress assignment continues as expected after it. Analyzing it as two syllables,

CV.VC, should produce the pronunciation shown in ex. 29b; however, what actually occurs is as

in ex. 29a.7 Below are a few additional examples of the behavior of (C)VVC syllables, with the

coda consonant being /h/:

(30) teh.t.ne /t--eht-ne/ ‘I meditated (long ago)’

k.teh.t.ne /kt--eht-ne/ ‘we meditated’

k.teh.t.t.ne /kt--eht-t-ne/ ‘we all meditated’

* k.t.éh.t.t.ne

2.2.4. (C)V Syllables. Certain disturbances appear at first sight to be unmotivated. Consider the

following examples:


. x .

(31a) me.néé.ti /m-ene-ti/ ‘you all saw’

. x .

(31b) k.néé.ne /kn-ene/ ‘s/he saw’

. x .

(32a) me.táá.ti /m-eta-ti/ ‘you all heard’

. x .

(32b) k.néé.ta /kn-eta/ ‘s/he heard’

x . .

(33a) méé.ka.ti /m-eeka-ti/ ‘you all bit’

. x .

(33b) k.néé.ka /kn-eeka/ ‘s/he bit’

Exs. 31-32 behave, as expected, according to the rhythmic pattern: either vowel of the

verb roots ene ‘see’ and eta ‘hear’ can become long when stressed. In ex. 33, however, the first

vowel of the verb root eeka ‘bite’ is never short and low-pitched, even when it is in a position

where an unstressed syllable is expected (ex. 33a). It behaves as if it had to be always long and

high-pitched, i.e. always stressed. The best way to account for this fact is to attribute inherent

weight to the first syllable of ex. 33 by analyzing it as of type (C)V underlyingly (i.e. the verb

root is eeka, not *eka).8

2.2.5. Conclusion: Syllable Weight in Tiriyó. Summarizing the above discussion, secondary

stress assignment treats (C)VC, (C)VVC, (C)VV and (C)V syllables differently from (C)V


syllables: the former are ‘inherently heavy’ (as opposed to the ‘superficially heavy’ syllables

generated by secondary stress), the latter are ‘inherently light’.

2.3. A historical explanation for underlying syllable weight. Synchronically, a number of

Tiriyó lexemes have alternations involving heavy syllables. Typically, one of the allomorphs

ends in two light syllables, while the other allomorph (or allomorphs) ends in a heavy syllable9,

based on the penultimate syllable of the first allomorph, but with either an underlyingly long

vowel or a final consonant (/h/, /m/ or /n/). Consider the examples below, with the verbs

komam / koman ‘to stay’ and ponop / ponoh / ponoo ‘to tell’:

. x . .

(34) yi.kóó.ma.m /yi-komam/ ‘I stayed’

. x x .

(35) yi.kóó.mán.yae /yi-komam-ya-e/ ‘I am staying’

. x . .

(36) mi.póó.no.p /mi-ponop/ ‘you told’

. x x .

(37) mi.póó.nóh.tae /mi-ponop-ta-e/ ‘you will tell’

. x x .

(38) mi.póó.nóó.yae /mi-ponop-ya-e/ ‘you are telling’


The best way to account for these alternations is to say that certain suffixes condition the

reduction of the final syllable of the root. Thus, when -ya-e is added to ikomam ‘stay’ (exs. 34-

35), the last syllable of the verb root is reduced to a nasal consonant; when -ta-e is added to

iponop ‘tell’ (ex. 36-37), the last syllable of the verb root is reduced to an h; finally, when -ya-e

is added to iponop (ex. 37), the last syllable of the verb root is totally lost, and the vowel of the

preceding one undergoes compensatory lengthening (cf. Meira ms for a detailed analysis).

The synchronic fact of inherently heavy syllables originating from syllable reduction

suggests that a corresponding diachronic syllable reduction process might be used to account for

all cases of underlying weight. Such a process was claimed in Girard 1971 for the Cariban

family; cf. also Gildea 1995 for an extensive discussion of what is known about syllable

reduction in the Cariban family. As concerns Tiriyó, it is interesting to observe that, in the cases

of underlying weight for which comparative data was readily available, extra phonemes existed

in the cognates from more conservative languages. For example, the verb eeka ‘to bite’ (exs. 33,

50) corresponds to oska in Kaxuyâna and Hixkaryana, and is reconstructed as *esika for Proto-

Cariban by Gildea 1995 (corrected to *eceka in Meira 1998).

2.4. Summary of Rhythmic Stress. The rhythmic stress pattern found in the data presented thus

far can be summarized as follows:

(1) Secondary stress is realized phonetically as high pitch and/or vowel length.

(2) All stressed syllables receive high pitch; inherently light stressed syllables additionally

receive vowel length.

(3) Every non-final inherently heavy syllable is stressed.


(4) Every second syllable, counting from either the beginning of the word or the nearest

inherently heavy syllable, is stressed.

(5) Final syllables remain unstressed.

Schematically (

= heavy syllable,

= light syllable, = high pitch),

(a) all syllables are inherently light

/

.../ => [

...

]

(b) only the last syllable is inherently heavy

/

...

/ => [

...

]

(c) an inherently heavy syllable occurs in a stress position

/

.../ => [

...

]

(d) an inherently heavy syllable occurs in a stressless position


/

.../ => [

...

]

2.5. Special Cases. The rhythmic stress pattern as stated above does not obtain in the case of

bisyllabic and monosyllabic words; there are also inconsistencies with the penultimate syllable of

words ending in two unstressed syllables. In these three cases, one should expect problems a

priori with the generalization made in sec. 2.4. Bisyllabic words would be in conflict; their

second syllable should be stressed (cf. rule 4 in sec. 2.4), but since it is also the last syllable it

should remain unstressed (cf. rule 5 in sec. 2.4). Monosyllabic words would be outside of the

domain of (at least word-level) rhythmic stress, for they only have one syllable and thus cannot

stress ‘every second syllable’. Words ending in two unstressed syllables are those which have an

unstressed penultimate syllable; since the last syllable must remain unstressed, stress rules

generate a word-final sequence of two unstressed syllables, elsewhere unattested and thus

possibly problematic.

2.5.1. Bisyllabic words. All bisyllabic words pronounced in isolation in the available corpus had

a high-pitched first syllable and a low-pitched second syllable. There are some cases of long

vowels and cases of short vowels in the first syllable; no cases of long vowels in the second

syllable were found. After a first syllable with a short vowel, a following stop was very

frequently geminated, in apparent free variation with a non-geminate equivalent. Preliminary

phonetic analyses suggest that medial stops in bisyllabic words are always longer than average,

even when their length is hard to hear.

(39) pá.ta /pata/ ‘village’


(40) mé.ne /m-ene/ ‘you saw’

(41) t.pu /tpu/ ‘stone, rock’

(42) é.p, ép.p /ep/ ‘tree’

(43) mét.ta /m-eta/ ‘you heard’

(44) náp.pi /napi/ ‘potato’

(45) má.ya /maya/ ‘knife’

The heavy syllables in exs. 42-44 do not appear to be inherently heavy. First, geminate

stops are otherwise unattested in the language.10

Second, bisyllabic words would be the only

words in the language in which a consonant other than /h/, /m/ or /n/ can close a syllable.

Furthermore, as is shown below, the addition of a syllabic suffix causes the heavy initial syllable

of ex. 43 to become light (the geminate stop becomes single); the resulting trisyllabic word

follows the rhythmic stress pattern.

x . . x .

(46) mét.ta /m-eta/ ‘you heard’ => me.táá.ti /m-eta-ti/ ‘you all heard’


Cases of (C)VC and (C)VVC as the first syllable of a bisyllabic word are attested in the

corpus. These syllables receive high pitch, but no consonant gemination or vowel length was

observed.11

x .

(47) máh.to /mahto/ ‘fire’

x .

(48) pín.ta /pinta/ ‘peanut’

x .

(49) nem.pa /n--empa/ ‘s/he learned’

At least some of the cases of long vowels occurring in the first syllable of bisyllabic

words seem to be underlyingly long (i.e. the syllables in which they occur seem to be (C)V).

Compare ex. 46 above with ex. 50 below:

x . x . .

(50) méé.ka /m-eka/ ‘you bit’ => méé.ka.ti /m-eka-ti/ ‘you all bit’

Ex. 46 shows that the first syllable of meta ‘you heard’ becomes superficially light when

a syllabic suffix is added that makes the word trisyllabic; therefore, its initial syllable is not

inherently heavy. On the other hand, in ex. 50, an additional syllabic suffix did not cause the first

syllable of meeka ‘you bit’ to become light. As was deduced in sec. 2.2.4, meekati ‘you all bit’

has an inherent CV first syllable; it is reasonable to assume the same for its non-collective


counterpart meeka. In this case, one may suppose that the surface long vowel (instead of the

apparently optional consonant gemination: [méé.ka], not *[mék.ka]) comes from the underlying

CV syllable. This suggests that surface vowel length in the first syllable of a bisyllabic word

(unlike in longer words) may be evidence for an underlying long vowel. As additional evidence,

consider ex. 51 below, where the addition of the collective clitic -ton does not cause the initial

syllable of the word oona ‘nose’ to become light.12

x . x . .

(51) óó.na /oona/ ‘nose’ => óó.na.ton /oona-ton/ ‘all the noses’

To summarize, bisyllabic words have an idiosyncratic pattern which assigns high pitch to

the first syllable and causes an optional gemination of the intervocalic consonant, if it is a stop.

The last syllable is always low-pitched, regardless of its internal structure. Underlyingly heavy

first syllables will only be assigned high pitch; their realization will be identical to their

underlying form. In particular, a surface long vowel in the first syllable is indication of an

underlying sequence of two equal vowels.

Schematically,

a) First syllable inherently light: high pitch, optional stop gemination

/1

1.

2

2/ => [

1

1(

2).

2

2] if

2 is a stop (/p, t, k/)

[1

1.

2

2] otherwise

(not *[1

1:.

2

2], i.e. the lengthening does not occur)


b) First syllable inherently heavy: high pitch

/1

1

2.

3

2/ => [

1

1

2.

3

2]

2being /h/ or a nasal

/1

1

2

2.

3

3/ => [

1

1

2

2.

3

3]

2being /h/ or a nasal

/1

1

2.

2

3/ => [

1

1

2.

2

3]

/1

1:.

2

2/ => [

1

1:.

2

2]

2.5.2. Monosyllabic words. There are only a few monosyllabic words. Since they only have one

syllable, there is no pitch contrast with a preceding or following syllable. Therefore, they simply

have no rhythmic pattern.

(52) [y] /ye/ ‘tooth’

(53) [] /o/ ‘carpentry instrument’

When a syllabic prefix is added to them, the result, as could be expected, follows the

pattern of bisyllabic words:

x .

(54) yí.ye /yi-ye/ ‘my tooth’

x .


(55) yí.yo /yi-y-o/ ‘my carpentry instrument’

2.5.3. Words Ending in Two Unstressed Syllables. According to the rhythmic stress rules (cf.

sec. 2.4), all words with an even number of inherently light syllables between the end and either

the beginning or the nearest inherently heavy syllable will end in a sequence of two unstressed

syllables, for the penultimate syllable will be in a stressless position and the last syllable must

remain unstressed:

/ (...

)

...

/ => [ (...

)

...

]

Since no other cases of two adjacent unstressed syllables occur in Tiriyó, this situation

has a higher level of markedness in the language, which suggests that it might be susceptible to

instability. In fact, though words ending in two unstressed syllables do occur (cf. Table 1), there

are inconsistencies and, apparently, other possibilities. In the speech of at least one informant

(Manuel Kaxuyana, who is, however, a non-native speaker), an inherently light penultimate

syllable in a stressless position was still assigned high pitch, though not vowel length. In the

speech of another informant (Pedro Asehp, a native speaker), high pitch on inherently light

penultimate syllables, albeit not always present, was certainly frequent. The word below, for

example, had high pitch on its penultimate syllable according to Manuel Kaxuyana, but not

according Pedro Asehp:

. x x? .

(56a) a.ráá.wá.ta /arawata/ ‘monkey (sp.)’


. x .? .

(56b) a.ráá.wa.ta /arawata/ ‘monkey (sp.)’

Moreover, even in cases such as 56b, the hearer sometimes had the impression that a

pitch drop from the penultimate to the last syllable could be noticed, as if the penultimate syllable

had some intermediate pitch level. Further research (including laboratory tests) is necessary to

determine the exact phonetic properties of unstressed penultimate syllables, for they seem to be

different from other unstressed syllables. A tentative explanation for this difference is given

below (sec.4.2).

3. Metrical Stress Theory. Modern theories of metrical stress consider that there are important

differences between ordinary phonetic/phonological features and stress that are best explained if

it is assumed that stress is not a feature, but rather part of a hierarchically organized rhythmic

structure into which words are "parsed" (Liberman 1975, Liberman & Prince 1977). This implies

the claim that stress is not a phonetic phenomenon that can be heard and transcribed, but rather

an abstract concept related to rhythm. While ordinary features represent articulatory and acoustic

facts, stress and rhythmic structure are timing phenomena.

In Hayes 1995, a parametric approach to metrical stress is sketched, according to which

syllables are grouped in higher metrical units (‘feet’). The main target of Hayes’ approach was a

subset of stress systems classified by him as ‘rhythmic’ (i.e. in which stress is based on purely

phonological factors, regardless of morphology) and ‘bounded’ (i.e in which stresses fall within

a particular distance of a boundary or another stress). This is exactly the kind of system that

exists in Tiriyó, where, as was seen in the preceding sections, secondary stress does not depend

on morphology and affects every second syllable throughout the word.


For rhythmic, bounded stress systems Hayes proposes the existence of only three basic

kinds of feet: the syllabic trochee, the moraic trochee, and the iamb. The syllabic trochee occurs

in systems which are not sensitive to syllable weight, whereas the moraic trochee and the iamb

occur in weight-sensitive systems. Syllable weight is represented by positions on a prosodic tier

(‘moras’) so that light syllables are linked to one mora and heavy syllables to two moras (if

necessary for a given language, extra-heavy syllables linked to three moras can be used). Hayes’

foot types are shown below (

= heavy syllable,

= light syllable, = any syllable; a

dot marks the weak syllable of a foot and an x marks the strong one).

Syllabic Trochee: ( x . ) Iamb: ( . x ) or ( x )

Moraic Trochee: ( x . ) or ( x ) (i.e. every foot has two moras)

The other important parameters used by Hayes are: direction of parsing (from left to right

or from right to left), extrametricality of peripheral elements (yes/no for consonants, syllables, or

feet), and the possibility of forming ‘degenerate’ feet (i.e. feet composed of the smallest possible

unit: a single light syllable in quantity-sensitive systems, or a single syllable of any kind in

quantity-unsensitive systems). For this last parameter, Hayes proposes two values: (a) degenerate

feet are absolutely disallowed, or (b) degenerated feet are allowed, but only in strong positions.

Within his framework, Hayes offered analyses for the stress systems of a number of

languages, among which Hixkaryana, a language related to Tiriyó (Hayes 1995:205-208, based

on Derbyshire 1985),13

with a stress system very similar to the one found in Tiriyó; the main


difference appears to be the treatment of bisyllabic words. For Hixkaryana, Hayes proposed the

following parameter values (the < > marks extrametricality, i.e. exclusion from the range of the

stress system):

- Syllable weight: /

/ (light) = CV, /

/ (heavy) = CVC

- Extrametricality: yes for final syllables ( => <> / __ ]phonological word )

- Foot type: iamb

- Direction of parsing: from left to right

- Degenerate feet: absolutely prohibited.

Hayes also posited a rule of iambic lengthening that added an extra mora to monomoraic

stressed syllables, thus lengthening their vowels.

The above analysis can be used for Tiriyó as well. The few necessary adaptations will be

discussed below. At the end, the main differences between Tiriyó and Hixkaryana (and other

Cariban languages for which data is available) will be discussed.

4. Using Hayes’ Treatment of Hixkaryana in Tiriyó. Basically speaking, the only major

difference between Tiriyó and Hixkaryana is the set of heavy syllables, which is larger in Tiriyó.

The parameters that will be used are thus:

- Syllable weight: /

/ = (C)V, /

/ = (C)VC, (C)VV, (C)VVC, (C)V

- Extrametricality: yes for final syllables ( => <> / __ ]phonological word )

- Foot type: iamb

- Direction of parsing: from left to right

- Degenerate feet: absolutely prohibited.


A rule similar to Hayes’ iambic lengthening has to be posited, but it must also include

high pitch assignment.

- Rhythmic Stress Rule: Make the strong syllables of all iambs superficially (i.e.

phonetically) high-pitched and bimoraic. Schematically ( = syllable, = mora, H = high tone; a

cross marks the strong syllable of a foot, and a dot marks the weak one; a syllable enclosed in

parentheses is optional),

FIGURE 1 HERE

The process of deriving the surface realization of secondary stress is supposed to consist

of the following steps: Sylllabification, Metrical Structure Assignment (i.e. "parsing") and the

Rhythmic Stress Rule (i.e. secondary stress assignment). The steps in the derivation are

illustrated below, with examples for each syllable type.

4.1. Deriving Rhythmic Stress. As first example, let us take an all-(C)V long word, like ex. 11,

kt-apoto-ma-po-ti ‘we all made him/her help’. The derivation of the actual surface form is as

follows (parentheses delimit feet, < > mark extrametricality):

FIGURE 2 HERE

Notice that the Rhythmic Stress Rule does not unconditionally add a mora; it simply

states that all strong syllables of iambs must be bimoraic. If it is underlyingly monomoraic, then a

new surface mora is added; if it is underlyingly bimoraic, nothing happens. As an illustration, let


us take a word with a (C)VC syllable, like ex. 19, kn-eraht-po-ti ‘s/he made them all find

him/her/it’, whose derivation is given below.

FIGURE 3 HERE

(C)VV syllables are treated just like (C)VC syllables, as in the schema below for the

derivation of the stress pattern of aimara ‘trout’.

FIGURE 4 HERE

(C)VVC syllables might be suspected of being trimoraic, since they are segmentally

longer than all other syllable types. Nevertheless, no difference has been found between (C)VVC

syllables and other heavy syllables thus far that might justify treating them as ‘superheavy’

(trimoraic). Thus, the last consonant of (C)VVC syllables will be represented as dominated by

the same moraic node as the preceding vowel.

FIGURE 5 HERE

Finally, the derivation of the stress pattern of ex. 33a, meekati ‘you all bite’, illustrates the

treatment of (C)V syllables, which are analyzed as underlyingly bimoraic (C)V syllables.

FIGURE 6 HERE

4.2. The Analysis of Problematic Cases. In sec. 2.5, bisyllabic words, monosyllabic words and

words ending in two unstressed syllables were defined as problematic cases. For monosyllabic


words, the best analysis thus far apparently is to consider them as being outside of metrical

structure altogether. The other two cases have one common feature: both have ‘unfootable’

penultimate syllables, and their analysis depends on whether their penultimate syllables should

be allowed to form degenerate feet or not.

4.2.1. Unfootable Penultimate Syllables. Words ending in two unstressed syllables have a light

penultimate syllable in a stressless position. The three derivations above illustrate such situations.

An all-CV example would be the word yaramata ‘chin’:

FIGURE 7 HERE

Some bisyllabic words apparently have an initial heavy syllable. Such cases are easy to

analyze: the first syllable does form a foot of which it is the strong (and unique) element and is

thus stressed. Consider ex. 49, meeka ‘you bit’:

FIGURE 8 HERE

Bisyllabic words with an initial light syllable (i.e. /

/ words) remain a problem.

Theoretically, they can be considered as a subgroup of the words with a light penultimate syllable

in a weak position. Since the last syllable is extrametrical and the first syllable, being light, must

remain unfooted, such bisyllabic words should remain without metrical structure and thus be

unstressed. This is exactly the case of ma in yaramata ‘chin’ above. However, the behavior of

such unfooted syllables in bisyllabic words is different. In polysyllables, unfooted syllables may

sometimes be totally unstressed (even though very often they are not, since they often receive


high pitch). In bisyllabic words, unfooted syllables always receive at least high pitch, and

sometimes consonant gemination.

Hixkaryana /

/ words were also a problem for Hayes’ analysis (Hayes 1995:205-

208). In Hixkaryana, such words receive vowel length, like all stressed syllables; no indication of

pitch is given. For instance, kana ‘fish’, tuna ‘water’ and kwaya ‘red and green macaw’ are

pronounced [k:n], [tu:n] and [kw:y] respectively; compare with secondary stress on a word

like nemokotono, ‘it fell’, pronounced as [nm:kt:n]. Therefore, the initial syllables of /

/ words are stressed exactly like all other stressed syllables. Hayes considered such cases

to be an example of what he called "unstressable word syndrome": when final syllables are

extrametrical and degenerate feet forbidden, /

/ words need some ‘help’ to become

stressable, in the form of a lengthening rule that makes their initial syllable heavy and thus

footable.

A similar rule in Tiriyó would have to add an extra mora to the first syllable of /

/

words, like the Rhythmic Stress Rule, but with the additional restriction that it be attached to the

vowel of the initial syllable and to the consonant of the following syllable (if it is a stop), so as to

make this consonant ambisyllabic. The Rhythmic Stress Rule would then assign high pitch to this

new heavy syllable. Alternatively, the Rhythmic Stress Rule itself could be modified to have this

special effect on bisyllabic words. The latter alternative is illustrated below with ex. 42, ep

‘tree’.

FIGURE 9 HERE

This solution, however, does not explain the cases of non-gemination of unfootable

syllables in polysyllables. The only ‘stress’ characteristic of such cases is high pitch (consistent


in bisyllabic words, inconsistent in polysyllables); no traces of surface bimoraicity (vowel length

or consonant gemination) remain.

One possible account of this situation would be to separate the Rhythmic Stress Rule into

two independent rules, one (‘Bimoraicization’) adding an extra mora to the strong element of a

foot if it is monomoraic (and applying optionally, with the special effect of causing consonant

gemination, on /

/ words), and the other (‘Tone Raising’) assigning high pitch to all

bimoraic syllables, obligatorily to the first syllable of bisyllabic words, and optionally to

unfootable penultimate syllables in polysyllabic words. However, such an analysis would be

clearly ad hoc, and would still need unmotivated devices and idiosyncratic effects to explain the

behavior of unfootable syllables.

Another possibility is to allow degenerate feet to be formed, but with a special mark, so

that the Rhythmic Stress Rule treats them differently from proper feet. This would, however,

slightly complicate the theory (which would have to incorporate some way of marking degenerate

feet say, by allowing them to have only a weak ‘.’ mark, without a strong ‘x’ mark and of

allowing rules to refer to them) and still would not remove the idiosyncratic treatment of

unfootable syllables (i.e. rules would have to treat degenerate feet differently, according to the

total number of syllables of the word).

Thus, the theoretical modeling of bisyllabic words presents some difficulties. However,

the observed variation between speakers (and even between different utterances by the same

speaker) suggests that this process is irregular, perhaps part of an ongoing change (cf. Sec. 5); a

good account may have to wait for more data on its social aspects.

For the time being, what seems to be the best approach is to conserve the ban on

degenerate feet and consider the idiosyncratic behavior of unfootable syllables as evidence that

they are outside of metrical structure. In this case, one has to consider their behavior as being


caused by rules other than the Rhythmic Stress Rule. In the next section, a phrase intonation

pattern is considered that appears to be relevant to this discussion.

4.2.2. The Last Syllable. In the analysis given above, the last syllable of every word was treated

as extrametrical, since it is ignored by the Rhythmic Stress Rule. This does not mean, however,

that it is always less prominent; examples of last syllables with high pitch (often higher than the

other high-pitched syllables in the same word) can be readily found. In every case, the last

syllable of a word, low-pitched and short when the word is pronounced in isolation, becomes

high-pitched and sometimes even (if it is CV) receives vowel length.

A case of tone raising of the last syllable happens whenever a pause occurs in a sentence.

The speaker seems to use the high pitch on the last syllable to mark the fact that the sentence is

not finished, that s/he still has other things to add to it.

(57) patá éntú / nekááramá / máyá / wya

village owner / he-gave-it / knife / to me

‘The chief game me the knife’

(58) pááhó / nw / káikui

my father / he-shot-it / jaguar

‘My father shot the jaguar’

(59) wtóótó / yepóór

person / he-found-me


‘The person found me’

These examples seem to suggest that the last syllable has important functions at the

phrase/sentence/text level; investigating these functions is one of the present research goals.

The behavior of final syllables may have important consequences for the interaction of

the rhythmic pattern with unfootable syllables. A suggestion (made by Gildea [pc]) is that, since

the prominence of the last syllable seems to have an important functional load, it must be always

distinguishable; the hearer must be able to tell if the word is connected to something else (high

pitch on the last syllable) or if it is not (low pitch). In this case, the pitch drop between unfooted

penultimate syllables and final syllables may simply be a result of the fact that they were

observed in words uttered in isolation. Not being connected to anything else, they needed a final

tone drop on the last syllable, which, by contrast, makes the preceding syllable sound high; this

would be especially noticeable in bisyllabic words, due to the absence of any truly stressed

syllables.14

If this is true (and further research is still necessary here), the Rhythmic Stress Rule

can be assumed without idiosyncratic effects on unfootable syllables, which are simply ignored

by it. The observed pitch drop is generated by a different rule, related to the functions of the last

syllable beyond the word level. One might assume the existence of a certain intonational contour

(the ‘Isolation’ or ‘Sentence-Final’ contour) characterized by the assignment of low pitch to the

last syllable of a (phonological) word:

FIGURE 10 HERE

Thus, when pronounced in isolation, words with an unfooted penultimate syllable will

sound as if this syllable were high-pitched because of the pitch drop caused by the low tone that

the isolation contour attaches to the last syllable. The inconsistencies in polysyllabic words might


be due to the presence of a number of stressed syllables in the same word with potentially higher

pitch levels, causing the contrast between penultimate and last syllables to become less

perceptible. The only remaining problem is the optional gemination of stops. One suggestion (cf.

next section) is that it may be part of a process of diachronic change in the family.

5. Rhythmic Stress in Other Cariban Languages. The above description is an attempt to

account for the facts observed in the Tiriyó language. As was mentioned in the Introduction,

similar systems exist in other Cariban languages. In the cases for which descriptions were

available, the systems were remarkably similar to the Tiriyó one. The major difference is to the

treatment of (a) bisyllabic /

/ words15

and (b) the last syllable of a (phonological) word.

In Katxuyana, Gildea (pc) describes a stress system which is almost equivalent to the one

found in Tiriyó, even in the treatment of /

/ words, in which the only (possible) difference

seems to be that a number of instances of vowel lengthening in the first syllable do occur

consistently; e.g. /roro/ ‘parrot’, pronounced as [], in which the vowel length is not

inherent (cf. the derived word /roro-tpo/ ‘worthless old parrot’, pronounced as [.tp]).

Stop gemination occurred as well; e.g., the pronunciation of /woku/ ‘drink’ is [wk.ku] (cf. /o-

woku-ru/ ‘your drink’, pronounced as [.w.ku.u]). No mention was made to effects of

intonational contours on the last syllable.

Hayes’ 1995 analysis of Hixkaryana stress, based on data from Derbyshire 1985, 1979,

has already been commented. As was discussed in sec. 4.2.1, the first syllable of /

/

words does receive vowel length.16

As for the last syllable of a phonological word, it can be

stressed and high-pitched if the word is not sentence-final (cf. Derbyshire 1985:182 for a

discussion of ‘Terminal’ and ‘Nonterminal’ intonation), which appears to be the same

phenomenon that occurs in Tiriyó.


In Carib of Surinam, a rhythmic stress system also appears to exist, although it is not

described as such. With bisyllabic words, the Hixkaryana vowel length pattern seems to occur:

Hoff (1968:72) describes the basic vocalic pattern of bisyllabic words without consonant clusters

and diphthongs as ‘long-short’; e.g. o:ro ‘may (wish)’, o:wa ‘hammock-line’, tu:na ‘water’. As

for the behavior of final syllables, Hoff mentions (p.96) a number of cases where stress

(described by him in terms of ‘pitch variations’) falls on a short syllable. Some interference with

intonational contours may have occurred, since most of Hoff’s examples were taken from texts.

He further mentions an intonational contour characterized "by a strong melodic rise on or

towards the final vowel (...), a rise that seems to indicate a certain incompleteness" (p.103). This

certainly corresponds to the patterns found in Tiriyó and Hixkaryana.

In Macushi, Abbott (1991:145-8) describes the last syllable of a phonological phrase

(which she defines as "a phrase bounded by pause") as "always long and stressed", so that words

always end in (superficially) heavy syllables: arí:mará:kayá:m: ‘dogs’, é:repá:m: ‘you

arrive’ (an example with an underlyingly long first syllable), umáimu yá:wr: ‘according to

my word’. For bisyllabic words, this implies that Macushi, unlike Tiriyó, gives more prominence

to the final syllable instead of to the first syllable: the word pata ‘place’ is actually realized as [p

ta] (Abbott 1991:147), with stress and length on the second vowel (whereas the Tiriyó word pata

‘village’ is realized [pá.ta]; cf. ex. 39). No references to intonational contours were made.

The first syllable of /

/ words has surface vowel length obligatorily in all cases in

two languages (Hixkaryana and Carib of Surinam), consistently in some cases in one language

(Katxuyana), in a few non-conclusive cases in one language (Tiriyó) and in no cases in one

language (Macushi). One possible explanation for this is diachronic change: maybe Hayes’

lengthening rule for ‘unstressable /

/ words’ (Hayes 1995:208) was active in the other

languages at some time in the past, but was later lost to different degrees. Stop gemination in

Tiriyó might thus be one of the stages following the loss of a previous lengthening rule. At this


stage, however, it is not possible to say whether the change is occurring in this direction or in the

opposite one (i.e. from systems where /

/ words are outside of the metrical system [Tiriyó,

Macushi] to one in which the first syllable is made long so as to become footable [Hixkaryana]).

It may also be the case that any remaining idiosyncratic behavior of the first syllable of /

/

words is due to some language-specific unpredictable solution for Hayes’ ‘unstressable word

syndrome’.

The Macushi pattern of last-syllable prominence on all words is clearly deviant.17

Such a

pattern appears to require stressable degenerate feet and no extrametricality for its description,

since final syllables can have all the signs of stress, including vowel length (Abbott 1991:145). If

stressable degenerate feet are allowed, then the last syllable of a word is always stressed because

it will either be in the strong position of an iambic foot or will form a stressable foot by itself,

regardless of its inherent weight. However, Hayes argues at length against the desirability of

degenerate feet; he suggests that languages with apparent secondary stress on a peripheral (initial

or final) syllable are still best analyzed with this prominence being generated by some other

process in the language rather than by the metrical structure (cf. his analysis of two such

languages, Icelandic [Hayes 1995:188-198] and Cahuilla [Hayes 1995:132-140]). Maybe it is a

better idea to look for an explanation in some intonational contour similar to the ‘Non-Isolation’

or ‘Nonterminal’ intonational contours found in Tiriyó, Hixkaryana and Carib of Surinam.

The fact that the above languages belong to at least four different sub-branches of the

family in all known classifications of Cariban languages (Girard 1966, Durbin 1977 and

Kaufman 1989) suggests that rhythmic stress existed in the proto-language; nevertheless, since

other non-closely-related languages have no rhythmic stress (e.g. Wayana [Tavares, pc],

Waimiri-Atroari [Bruno, pc], Panare),18

it is still impossible to determine to what level in the

family tree it can be reconstructed. Unfortunately, most Cariban languages are still very poorly


known (if at all); hopefully, as more descriptions of Cariban languages are undertaken, a clearer

view of this problem will emerge.


NOTES

1 Tiriyó (known by its speakers as [ta.r.no]) is a Cariban language spoken by some 2,000

people on both sides of the Brazil-Surinam border. Most of the data for this work were collected

by me and by Dr. Spike Gildea, both in two field trips to the Missão Tiriyó in Brazil, where about

700 Tiriyó speakers live, and with occasional Tiriyó speakers who came to the cities of Belém

(Pará) and Macapá (Amapá); some data was already available at Museu Goeldi (three tapes with

words and sentences). My field work was part of the Northen Brazilian Cariban Languages

Description Project, supported by the United States National Science Foundation, grant number

DBS-9210130; I also thank the Brazilian Scientific Research Committee (CNPq) and the French

Overseas Research Organization (ORSTOM) for financial support. Thanks also to the people at

Missão Tiriyó, including language consultants (Yakári, Pedro Asehp, Nasau and others) and

Missão personnel (with a special note of thanks to Frei Bento for giving us logistical support and

for sharing his previous work on Tiriyó, which was extremely useful to us). Thanks to Drs.

Denny Moore, from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, to Dr. Francisco Queixalós, from

ORSTOM/CNRS, and to Dr. Aryon Rodrigues, from the University of Brasília, for comments on

a previous version of this paper. And, most of all, thanks to my advisor, Dr. Spike Gildea, who,

in his tireless reviews of my work, analysis as well as transcription, has tried to teach me how to

be careful, precise, and methodical. Of course, any remaining mistakes are my own.

2 The phonemic inventory of the Missão Tiriós dialect of Tiriyó is reasonably simple. There are

ten consonants (/p, t, k, s, h, m, n, r, w, y/) and seven vowels (/i, , u, e, , o, a/). The stops /p/

and /k/ have the respective allomorphs [] and [x ~ ] when preceded by /h/. The fricative /s/ is

realized as slightly palatal ([]). The nasals assimilate in point of articulation to a following

consonant (which generates phonetic [] if the following consonant is /y/). All stops are

optionally voiced after nasals. The glottal fricative [h] only occurs syllable-finally. The liquid /r/

is realized most of the times as a flap ([]); sometimes, it has some lateral release. The bilabial

glide /w/ tends to be almost non-round ([]). The vowels /e/ and /o/ are generally lax ([] and


[]), but tense allophones [e] and [o] are sometimes heard, in apparent free variation with the lax

ones. The vowel [] tends sometimes toward [].

3 The exact domain of rhythmic stress (the phonological word) is still being researched; it is

clear, however, that it includes a number of clitics (particles, postpositions, and even some forms

of the copula). It is for the phonological word that the account of rhythmic stress given here is

considered to be valid.

4 The last syllable can be made high (and sometimes even long) when the words are not

pronounced in isolation; cf. sec. 4.2.2. High pitch can sometimes be reduced phonetically,

probably due to interactions with intonational contours (cf. following footnote).

5 The actual correlation between high pitch and vowel length is complicated by interactions with

intonational contours, in ways that are not fully understood yet; the examples given here have

‘word list’ intonation (i.e. they were uttered in isolation) and are not based on laboratory

research. Furthermore, high-pitched syllables are not all the same; some sound higher than

others, in a way that is not consistent (i.e. different utterances of the same word may have

different highest syllables). Further research on the phonetic correlates of the Tiriyó rhythmic

stress system will hopefully lead to a better understanding of pitch phenomena in the language.

6 The question of primary stress is a thornier issue. The impression given by the recordings is

that the last stressed syllable is higher in tone than the others, so that one might want to see

primary stress as being automatically attached to the last stressed syllable of a word; yet, given

inconsistencies in the available data (and in the author's hearing of them), it appears that more

data and tests in phonetic laboratories are still necessary for the issue to be correctly addressed. In

this paper, no claims concerning primary stress will be made.

7 Both this case and the preceding one are compatible with the generalization that vowel-initial

syllables occur only at the beginning of a word.

8 Cases such as these are obviously far less frequent than the regular cases (especially for shorter

e.g. less than six syllables words); otherwise, there would be no reason to ascribe any


special status to the rhythmic pattern as defined in sec. 2 rather than e.g. to the pattern of ex. 33.

Furthermore, as is shown in the next section, there is a diachronic explanation for heavy syllables

which seems to explain underlyingly long vowels as well.

9 Such an allomorph may end in a long vowel; nevertheless, since it is only used with non-zero

suffixes, no cases of word-final long vowels are generated.

10 Nasal consonants can be geminated; e.g. /nunn/ ‘moon’, /wtnne/ ‘I went’. Stop

gemination, on the other hand, was found only in the cases of bisyllabic words described in the

text.

11 There is some variation (especially among younger speakers) between CVh and CV

syllables, due to an apparent ongoing process of h-loss at the ends of syllables; thus, both e.g.

[máh.to] and [máá.to] 'fire' are attested. Notice, however, that (C)Vh never occurs (e.g.

*[mááh.to] is unattested).

12 For oona 'nose', as for eeka 'bite' (cf. sec. 2.3), additional comparative evidence suggests that

extra material was lost, thus causing compesatory lengthening: more conservative languages

preserve additional segments (cf. Katxuyana ouna, Waiwái euna [Gildea - pc], Wayana emna

[Tavares 1993] for 'nose').

13 Cf. van de Vijver 1998 for a different account of stress in Hixkaryana, Tiriyó, and Carib,

within the framework of Optimality Theory.

14 In this respect, note that the first word of ex. 57 is pronounced [patá], not [páta], which may

be because it is followed by a possessor noun.

15 It is possible that, as in Tiriyó, unfooted syllables in polysyllabic words also present divergent

behavior, and that this be connected to the behavior of the first syllable of /

/ words; since,

however, no mention to this was found in the available descriptions, nothing will be said here

about polysyllabic words.


16 Preliminary field data from my last field trip (1995) suggest this to be the case as well for

Tunayana, a previously unstudied Cariban language (probably a dialect of Waiwai) which also

has the rhythmic stress system; cf. /tuna/ ‘water’, pronounced [túú.na], with a long first vowel.

17 Gildea (pc) notes that Panare has a general pattern of word-final stress.

18 Tavares (pc) has reported some remnants of the rhythmic stress pattern in Wayana; my field

notes suggest the existence of similar remnants in Apalaí. Gildea 1992 mentions some

characteristics which are suggestive of a previous rhythmic stress system in Panare, one which

has subsequently been lost. Certain dialects of French Guyana Carib may be in the process of

losing a rhythmic stress system (Lescure [pc]). Such evidence, though certainly not conclusive,

strengthens the case for a Proto-Cariban rhythmic stress. The causes of the loss of this system are

unknown at present, though one might suggest that diachronic syllable reduction, especially in its

strongest form (when the whole syllable is lost and the preceding vowel becomes long), may

have generated, at least in some languages, a high number of confusing exceptions to the regular

pattern, leading younger generations not to acquire it anymore. In this case, maybe the lack of

non-phonemic vowel length in the first syllable of bisyllabic words in Tiriyó, perhaps

accompanied by stop gemination, marks an early stage of this loss. However, in the absence of

more reliable comparative data, this idea remains at best speculative.


REFERENCES

ABBOTT, MIRIAM. 1991. Macushi. In: Handbook of Amazonian Languages, vol. 3,

ed. by Desmond C. Derbyshire and Geoffrey K. Pullum, 23-160. Berlin:

Mouton de Gruyter.

DERBYSHIRE, DESMOND C. 1985. Hixkaryana and linguistic typology. Publication

no. 76. The Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at

Arlington.

DURBIN, MARSHALL. 1977. A survey of the Cariban language family. In: Carib-

speaking Indians: culture, society and language, ed. by Ellen B. Basso,

Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, 28: 23-38. Tucson:

University of Arizona Press.

GILDEA, SPIKE. 1992. Comparative Cariban morphosyntax: on the genesis of

ergativity in independent clauses. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon,

Eugene.

GILDEA, SPIKE. 1995. A comparative description of syllable reduction in the

Cariban language family. International Journal of American Linguistics, vol.

61, n.1, 62-102.

GIRARD, VICTOR JAMES. 1971. Proto-Carib phonology. University of California

Ph.D. dissertation.

HALL, KATHERINE LEE. 1988. The Morphosyntax of Discourse in De’kwana

Carib. Ph.D. dissertation, Washington University.


HAYES, BRUCE. 1995. Metrical stress theory: principles and case studies. Chicago

and London: The University of Chicago Press.

HOFF, BEREND J. 1968. The Carib Language. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

KAUFMAN, TERRENCE. 1989. A classification of Cariban languages. ms.

LIBERMAN, MARK. 1975. The intonational system of English. Ph.D. dissertation,

Massashusetts Institute of Technology (distributed by Indiana University

Linguistics Club, Bloomington).

LIBERMAN, MARK, AND ALAN PRINCE. 1977. On stress and linguistic rhythm.

Linguistic Inquiry 8, 249-336.

MEIRA, SÉRGIO. ms. Tiriyó grammar sketch.

MEIRA, SÉRGIO. 1998. A reconstruction of Proto-Taranoan: phonology and

inflectional morphology. M.A. Thesis, Rice University, Houston, Texas.

TAVARES, PETRONILA DA SILVA. 1993. A fonologia e a posse nominal da língua

Wayâna. Senior thesis, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brazil.

VAN DE VIJVER, RUBEN. 1998. The iambic issue: iambs as a result of constraint

interaction. Amsterdam: Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics

Dissertation no. 37


FIGURE 1

H

. x

( () ) => ( () )


FIGURE 2

Underlying Form Syllabification

t a p o t o m a p o t i => k t a p o t o m a p o t i =>

Metrical Structure Assignment Rhythmic Stress Rule

. x . x . x . x . x . x

( ) ( ) ( ) <> ( ) ( ) ( ) <>

k t a p o t o m a p o t i => k t á p o t ó m a p ó t i ==>

[k.táá.po.tóó.ma.póó.ti]


FIGURE 3

Underlying Form Syllabification

k n e r a h t p o t i => k n e r a h t p o t i =>

Metrical Structure Assignment Rhythmic Stress Rule

. x x . x . x x . x

( ) ( ) ( ) <> ( ) ( ) ( ) <>

k n e r a h t p o t i => k n é r á h t p ó t i ==>

[k.néé.ráh.t.póó.ti]


FIGURE 4

Metrical Rhythmic

Underlying Structure Stress

Form Syllabification Assignment Rule

x x

( <> ( <>

a i m a r a => a i m a r a => a i m a r a => á i m a r a ==> [áimara]


FIGURE 5

Metrical Rhythmic



x x

( ) <> ( ) <>

t e m p a n e => t e m p a n e => t e m p a n e => t e m p a n e

==> [tempane]


FIGURE 6

Metrical Rhythmic



x x

<> <>

m e k a t i => m e k a t i => m e k a t i => m é k a t i ==>

[méékati]


FIGURE 7

Metrical Rhythmic



. x . x

() < > () < >

y a r am a t a => y a r a m a t a => y a r a m a t a => y a r á m a t a

==> [ya.ráá.ma.ta]


FIGURE 8

Metrical Rhythmic



x x

<> ()<> ()<>

m e k a => m e k a => m e k a => m é k a ==> [mééka]


FIGURE 9

Metrical Rhythmic



x x

()<> () <>

()

e p => e p => e p => e p ==> [ép],

[épp]


FIGURE 10

Isolation Contour: [ ... ]

L

Rhythmic Stress in Tiriyo (Cariban

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