Oddities of Yidiɲ Stress Revisited

Abstract

The Australian language Yidiɲ exhibits an unusual stress pattern: The penultimate syllable and every other syllable to the left bears stress, but penultimate lengthening occurs only in words containing an odd number of syllables. We propose that the lengthening is due to a rhythm-enhancing trade-off: Either the word begins with a stressed syllable or the penultimate syllable is lengthened. This approach is supported by the results of two perception studies. Specifically, it was found that test-strings without initial stress were significantly less likely to be correctly categorized as having rhythmic alternation than test-strings with initial stress. While it has been known that languages prefer words to begin with a stressed syllable these studies provide evidence that starting with a stressed syllable aids listeners in hearing a rhythmic pattern and, further, supports the proposed motivation for the distribution of penultimate lengthening in Yidiɲ.