Some remarks on stress, syncope, and gemination in Mussau

Contrary to theoretical expectations, Mussau, a language spoken in the St M atthias archipelago in northwest Melanesia, has developed some geminate con sonants through the loss of stressed vowels. It is argued that other consid erations have overridden considerations of stress in germinate formation, n ot only in Mussau, but in many other Oceanic languages. Specifically, vowel s tend to delete between identical consonants in partial reduplication, a t endency that accords closely with Odden's (1988) arguments against the Obli gatory Contour Principle, particularly as it applies to antigemination.