Syllable "Sonority" Hierarchy and Pulaar Stress

A Metrical Approach

Abstract

"Syllable weight is usually viewed as a binary opposition…' (Hayes 1989) . That is, syllable weight distinctions are claimed to be at most binary: heavy vs light; bimoraic vs monomoraic. This paper argues that further distinctions of syllable weight are necessary to account for certain phonological processes. I argue and show that Pulaar (a dialect of Fula), makes a four way weight distinction. In addition, the analysis adopted in this paper shows that previous analyses of Pulaar metrical structure are inadequate.