Word stress in Central Kurdish

Abstract

This thesis explores the distribution of CK word stress, which is manifested in the relative prominence of strong syllables. Cross-linguistically, languages have either free or fixed stress rules, weight-sensitive or weight-insensitive syllables, and bound or unbound stress systems. The language this study addresses is Central Kurdish (CK), which is widely used in the northern parts of Iraq and Iran. The study explains the CK stress system in terms of these typological parameters and locates the position of primary and secondary stress in simple and compound CK words. The study is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the scope, problem, aim, and the theoretical models adopted. The second chapter provides background knowledge on Kurdish: its origins, population size, linguistic landscape, and dialect groups. The chapter also includes a detailed description of the phonemic inventory of CK. Chapter three addresses CK structure, the distribution of primary and secondary stress in the syllables, and syllable weight and syllable constraints. The foot structure of CK is accounted for in chapter four, in which the CK foot inventory, foot parameters, evidence for foot, and foot metrification are explained. The fifth chapter explains the position of primary and secondary stress in CK non-derived and derived words in light of the metrical theory and OT constraints. Finally, the conclusions the present work has drawn are provided in chapter six. The theoretical models adopted in this study for data analysis are the metrical formalisms of bracketed grid (Halle & Vegnaud 1987), pure grid (Prince 1983; Selkirk 1984), and the constraint-based formalisms of the syllable and foot analysis in OT (Prince & Smolensky, 2004; Kager 1999). Reference is also given to the moraic theory (McCawley 1968; Selkirk 1981) to account for certain weight sensitivity characteristics of CK syllables, such as compensatory lengthening and gemination. The study concludes that stress distribution in CK depends on the morphological form of the word. In non-derived words, primary stress is placed upon the last syllable, whereas secondary stress is determined algorithmically according to its distance from the primary; it falls two syllables to the left of the primary stress. In derived words, on the other hand, stress assignment depends on the type and linear order of the affixes attached to the stem of the host word. If the host word has a stress-bearing affix (e.g. definite article), the affix attracts stress onto itself, causing a shift in stress placement. However, if the affix is unstressable, primary stress remains on the last syllable of the stem, in which case the word stress rule is applied.