Word-Stress Patterns in Mongolic Languages

Abstract

The paper presents a preliminary analysis of stress patterns in Mongolic languages. According to the author's hypothesis, there are at least three major word stress patterns in Mongolic. The word-stress patterns discussed in the paper derive from the analysis of relationship between various vowel nuclei and pitch accent. Possible ways of application of this interpretation to the study of diachronic development of word sound and syllable structure in Mongolic are briefly considered. Further testing of the hypothesis shall require phonetic investigation of word stress patterns in Mongolic. In the article, the term 'stress pattern' stands for models (patterns) or structural types of word stress. Since the works in general phonetics by Russian scholars contain almost no mention of the term 'word-stress model', a decision was made to apply the term 'word-stress pattern' in a litte different sense. The paper suggests that an adequate understanding of the question shall cast light upon a number of contestable issues of Mongolic comparative and historical phonetics. A total of four viewpoints upon the Mongolic word stress can be identified in works dealing with Mongolian philology, namely: 1) The stress is on the first syllable and is essentially expiratory (the viewpoint had been cultivated by the first investigators of the Mongolian language, the authors of the first grammar books, and is still widespread enough, especially within some university programs); 2) The stress is on the last syllable and is not dynamic (being achieved through 'tone elevation'); 3) There is no stress; 4) The stress does exist though it may essentially vary. As mentioned above, the author's hypothesis suggests there are at least three major word-stress patterns in Mongolic languages. Two of them have evidently developed in the recent period and are basically unstable in terms of diachrony. Pattern three is typical for contact zones.