Iambic Feet and Syllables in Paumari: Analysis and Theoretical Consequences

1. Introduction This paper analyses foot and syllable structure in Paumari, an Amazonian language of the Arawan family (see Figure 1), all of whose languages are spoken near the Purus river in Western Amazonas state, Brazil. Paumari is a highly endangered language. There are only a few hundred speakers of Paumari and most of them speak Portuguese more and more in their daily lives, occasionally even among themselves (although among themselves Paumari is still spoken far more than Portuguese and children still grow up speaking Paumari). It is therefore extremely urgent that we document this language now, before the lessons it has to teach us are lost. The principal contribution of this paper is therefore intended to be empirical. The main descriptive and theoretical points I make in this paper are the following. First, Paumari has iambic feet, built from the right edge of the word. Second, these iambic feet are not weight-sensitive. These first two points violate the proposals of most who have worked on prosodic feet and so are interesting in their own right, as we will see (for a comprehensive review of work on iambic stress systems, the reader is referred to van de Vijver (1998)). Perhaps the most interesting corollary of these points, emerging during the discussion of section 6 below is that the constrasts between trochaic and iambic foot structures is underdetermined by phonetics, contrary to the proposals of several researchers (especially Hayes (1995) and Kager (1993)). My next set of points are related to the Paumari syllable and syllable theory more generally. I argue that there is evidence that syllables in Paumari are irrelevant to stress placement. This leads us to a novel perspective on syllables, buttressed by additional data from the related Arawan language, Banawá. In particular I argue for a distinction between the syllable's role in the enhancement of segmental perception and the construction of the syllable as a domain for the application of phonological constraints. Before proceeding though, we should have a look at Paumari's genealogical relationships. These are given in Figure 1. In this Figure, dialect names are italicized. Proto-languages are in bold.