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Universal 815: mora ⇒ ¬ monosyllabic tonal L

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 815: mora ⇒ ¬ monosyllabic tonal L

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

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Examples given are Classical Greek, Lithuanian (both Indo-European), and Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyuan).

    1. May 2020

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