Prosodic and Melodic Accent and a Special Status of the Last Syllable in Welsh
Abstract
A closer investigation of patterns of accentuation in Welsh allows to draw a number of conclusions concerning stress models in the language, namely, that there appear to be two types of metrical foot: metrical foot proper (trochaic), defining the prosodic accent, and melodic (tonic) foot (iambic), responsible for the presence of High Tone in its strong branch. These two models are not in conflict but together contribute to the observed peculiarities of Welsh speech, such as its higher pitch associated with the last syllable of the word, numerous vocalic alternations and apparent irregularities and differences in the degree of prosodic stress.
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