The Weight Law (aka Stressed Syllables Law or Prokosch’s Law): In stress accent languages an accented syllable is the more preferred, the closer its syllable weight is to two moras, and an unaccented syllable is the more preferred the closer its weight is to one mora. (The optimal stressed syllable is bimoric, the optimal unstressed syllable is unimoric.)
Standardized
The Weight Law (aka Stressed Syllables Law or Prokosch’s Law): In stress accent languages an accented syllable is the more preferred, the closer its syllable weight is to two moras, and an unaccented syllable is the more preferred the closer its weight is to one mora. (The optimal stressed syllable is bimoric, the optimal unstressed syllable is unimoric.)
Keywords
stress accent, syllable, mora
Domain
prosodic phonology
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
languages mentioned in Vennemann 1988, with special reference to German, Germanic, Italian, and Latin
Vennemann’s PREFERENCE LAWS (1988: 2-3):Diachronic Maxim:Linguistic change on a given parameter does not affect a language structure as long as there exist structures in the language system that are less preferred in terms of the relevant preference law.Synchronic Maxim:A language system will in general not contain a structure on a given parameter without containing those structures constructible with the means of the system that are more preferred in terms of the relevant preference law.
Vennemann’s PREFERENCE LAWS (1988: 2-3):Diachronic Maxim:Linguistic change on a given parameter does not affect a language structure as long as there exist structures in the language system that are less preferred in terms of the relevant preference law.Synchronic Maxim:A language system will in general not contain a structure on a given parameter without containing those structures constructible with the means of the system that are more preferred in terms of the relevant preference law.