Primarily in
Austroasiatic languages
The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...
(also known as Mon–Khmer), in a typical word, a minor syllable, presyllable, or sesquisyllable, is a reduced (minor)
syllable
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
followed by a full tonic or stressed syllable. The minor syllable may be of the form or , with a
reduced vowel, as in colloquial
Khmer, or of the form with no vowel at all, as in
Mlabri 'navel' (minor syllable ) and 'underneath' (minor syllable ), and
Khasi 'rule' (minor syllable ), ''syrwet'' 'sign' (minor syllable ), 'transform' (minor syllable ), 'seed' (minor syllable ) and ''tyngkai'' 'conserve' (minor syllable ).
This
iambic pattern is sometimes called sesquisyllabic (lit. 'one and a half syllables'), a term coined by the American linguist
James Matisoff
James Alan Matisoff ( zh, , t=馬蒂索夫, s=马蒂索夫, p=Mǎdìsuǒfū or zh, , t=馬提索夫, s=马提索夫, p=Mǎtísuǒfū; born July 14, 1937) is an American linguist. He is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Cal ...
in 1973 (Matisoff 1973:86). Although the term may be applied to any word with an iambic structure, it is more narrowly defined as a syllable with a
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
whose
phonetic realization is
ǝC
In historical linguistics
Sometimes minor syllables are introduced by language contact. Many
Chamic languages as well as
Burmese have developed minor syllables from contact with Mon-Khmer family. In Burmese, minor syllables have the form , with no
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s allowed in the
syllable onset
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
, no
syllable coda
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
, and no
tone
Tone may refer to:
Visual arts and color-related
* Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory
* Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color
* Toning (coin), color change in coins
* ...
.
Some reconstructions of
Proto-Tai and
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
also include sesquisyllabic roots with minor syllables, as transitional forms between fully disyllabic words and the monosyllabic words found in modern
Tai languages
The Tai, Zhuang–Tai, or Daic languages (Ahom language, Ahom: 𑜁𑜪𑜨 𑜄𑜩 or 𑜁𑜨𑜉𑜫 𑜄𑜩 ; ; or , ; , ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai languages, Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spo ...
and modern
Chinese.
See also
*
Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area
The Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area is a sprachbund including languages of the Sino-Tibetan, Hmong–Mien (or Miao–Yao), Kra–Dai, Austronesian and Austroasiatic families spoken in an area stretching from Thailand to China. Neighb ...
*
Stress in Khmer
Notes
References
*Brunelle, Marc; Kirby, James; Michaud, Alexis; Watkins, Justin. (2017)
Prosodic systems: Mainland Southeast Asia HAL 01617182.
*Butler, Becky Ann. (2014). ''Deconstructing the Southeast Asian sesquisyllable: A gestural account (Doctoral dissertation)''. Cornell University.
*
*Ferlus, Michel. (2004)
The origin of tones in Viet-Muong In ''Papers from the Eleventh Annual Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society'' (pp. 297–313). HAL 00927222v2.
*Ferlus, Michel. (2009)
What were the four Divisions of Middle Chinese? ''Diachronica, 26''(2), 184-213. HAL 01581138v2.
*
Matisoff, James A. (1973). 'Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia'. In Larry M. Hyman (ed.)
''Consonant Types and Tone''(Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics No. 1), pp. 73–95. Los Angeles: Linguistics Program, University of Southern California.
*Kirby, James & Brunelle, Marc. (2017). Southeast Asian tone in areal perspective. In R. Hickey (Ed.), ''The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics'' (pp. 703–731).
*Michaud, Alexis. (2012)
Monosyllabicization: patterns of evolution in Asian languages In ''Monosyllables: From phonology to typology'' (pp. 115–130). HAL 00436432v3.
*Svantesson, J.-O. & Karlsson, A. M. (2004)
Minor syllable tones in Kammu In ''International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (TAL 2004)''.
* Thomas, David (1992)
'On Sesquisyllabic Structure' ''
Mon-Khmer Studies
''Mon-Khmer Studies'' was an academic journal that focused on Mon-Khmer languages. It was established in 1964 and ceased publication in 2016. From 1992 onwards, it was published by Mahidol University and SIL International
SIL Global (formerl ...
'', 21, pp. 206–210.
Phonetics
{{phonetics-stub