First:
gLeN 18-08-2005 22:44 :
>Surprisingly for English speakers, 'san' is also
>considered two morae: sa-n.
Couldn't French feminines with single consonant
+ e instable be considered to form a similar mora?
Or even a syllable even when the e is mute?
At least in a former stage of language development
(or today when training to recite each second line
on Alexandrines if you are training to be admitted
at Comédie Franc,aise).
Next:
gLeN 18-08-2005 23:21 :
>I prefer to think
>that if IE really had 'aspirate voiced' stops, it
>had developed them out of formerly 'fully-voiced'
>stops. So if *dH is fully-voiced (as with French 'd'),
>IE *d on the other hand would be only half-voiced (as
>with English 'd').
Intervocalic French s'es constitute an allophone /z/
which is then due to be fully voiced.
Idée :
A PIE nominative marker *-s& after a vowel could likewise
intervocalically have been realized as *-z& (but in this
case perhaps only half-voiced).
Then similar steps could have made & mute, but for a time
retaining mora and syllabic function.
Lars