The prosodic foot: a typological study of greater Timor languages

Abstract: The foot is an intermediary domain between the syllable and prosodic word, and various phonological and morphophonological phenomena can be accounted for by appealing to it. However, the role and evidence for the foot is not established in the same way as for the syllable or prosodic word. It is also often closely associated with prosodic prominence, especially stress. This impacts how the foot is described and compared. As for stress systems, feet are often classified as either “iambic” or “trochaic”. However, the role and structure of foot itself—separate from prosodic prominence—has not been well-studied typologically.

This thesis is a study of the prosodic foot. It presents a case-study of languages from the greater Timor region, in the south-east of Island South East Asia. Its goal is to offer new insights into the nature of the foot and how it can be better typologised.

Greater Timor languages attest various phonotactic, phonological, and morphophonological phenomena which are best analysed as occurring in or triggered by the foot domain. I examine these phenomena as to how they pertain to the structure and internal organisation of the foot, as well as how it differs from the syllable and word domain.

The foot in greater Timor languages comprises two syllables. It is phonotactically constrained both in terms of which segments can occur in certain positions and which segments can co-occur. The foot also has internal structure. Evidence for this comes from asymmetries: the two syllables are subject to different phonotactic constraints and are affected differently by various processes. However, the relationship between syllables is more complex than be captured by labeling one as the “head” or “prominent”. More broadly, I find that these explanations for foot internal structure do not hold up under closer scrutiny.

In languages of greater Timor, there are several ways in which the foot is an independent level from the syllable and word. However, more broadly, I find that the nature of the foot seems be different to that of the syllable and word. There are several reasons for this, including that there is very little evidence that it plays a role in phrase-level prosody, including in the languages surveyed here.

Throughout this thesis, I find that the categories “iambic” and “trochaic” are insufficient for both description and comparison. Rather, in order to typologise the foot better, it is requisite to establish identifying properties of foot structure and to establish variables of diversity in the foot domain. The data from greater Timor languages help us to do both of these things. More broadly, greater Timor languages show us that foot structure has many dimensions, and that there are many variables of diversity in this domain

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Universität Freiburg, Dissertation, 2024

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: Phonologie ; Phonetik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2024
• Creator: Culhane, Kirsten
• Contributor: Reinöhl, Uta ; Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. ; Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar ; Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Philosophische Fakultät

Further information

• DOI: 10.6094/UNIFR/243922
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-2439225
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:55 AM CEST