CAYUGA ACCENT - A SYNCHRONIC ANALYSIS

Cayuga (Northern Iroquoian) is a pitch accent language displaying diff erent conditions for the accenting and lengthening of even-numbered an d odd-numbered penults (counting from left to right). It is shown that Cayuga accent placement is predictable from metrical structure, and t hat metrical structure is in turn influenced by constraints on syllabl e structure. Syllable structure constraints are that: 1) all things be ing equal, coda consonants are parsed as light; and 2) vowel length is dispreferred. In odd-numbered penults, dispreferred syllable structur e can be avoided, and this results in accented odd-numbered open penul ts and unaccented odd-numbered closed penults. In even-numbered penult s, dispreferred syllable structure (especially that resulting from len gthening) is required in order to avoid metrically adjacent strong ele ments, and this results in the accenting of all even-numbered penults. The accenting patterns of Cayuga ultimately derive from the fact that Cayuga is a quantity-sensitive language that disprefers quantity.