Universal #818

Legacy number: 818

 Number  815
 Original  Mora occurs only in non-monosyllabic tonal languages.
 Standardized  IF moras matter [for what?], THEN the language is non-monosyllabic and tonal.
 Formula  mora ⇒ ¬ monosyllabic tonal L
 Keywords  mora, monosyllabic, tone
 Domain  phonology, morphology
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  almost absolute
 Basis  unspecified
 Source  Décsy 1987: 73

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Latvian (Baltic, Indo-European), Chinese (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan) (but the morae are not used for combinatory differentiations there, for which bi- and polysyllabicity is a precondition).
Notes
Examples given are Classical Greek, Lithuanian (both Indo-European), and Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyuan).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Examples given are Classical Greek, Lithuanian (both Indo-European), and Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyuan).