In this course, we discuss how cross-linguistic variation in prosodic systems can be analysed from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Our empirical focus is on what is often referred to as stress systems (e.g., English), tone systems (e.g., Mandarin), and systems that seem to be located ‘between’ the two alleged prototypes, such as so-called tone accent systems that combine properties of word stress and tone (e.g., Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian, varieties of West and North Germanic, Lithuanian, Scottish Gaelic, etc.). Particularly with regard to stress and tone accent systems, we also address interactions between stress/accent and i. segmental structure (vowel / consonant quality and duration), ii. intonation and sentential prominence, as well as the relation of metrical prominence and morphology. Throughout the course, we discuss these different types of data and use them to evaluate different synchronic approaches to the typology of prosodic systems. Furthermore, we also look at selected cases of diachronic change in prosodic systems.

Throughout the course, students will gain an understanding of word-level prosodic structure and its interfaces with segmental structure, post-lexical phonology, and morphology, all of which are central properties of phonological systems and their interfaces. They will also acquire the background knowledge necessary to follow and potentially contribute to ongoing debates at the heart of phonological theory.

At the end of the course, students should be able to…

• describe and assess competing theories of how word-prosodic structure is built;
• conduct formal phonological/metrical analyses of relevant phenomena, taking into account various sources of evidence (intonational, tonal, segmental, morphological);
• relate synchronic patterns in prosodic systems to diachronic developments and evaluate different scenarios of selected cases of prosodic change.

Some selected references
Davis, Stuart. 2011. Geminates. In The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, vol. 2, eds. Marc van Oostendorp, Colin Ewen, Elizabeth Hume, and Keren Rice, 873–897. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Gussenhoven, Carlos & Jörg Peters. 2004. A tonal analysis of Cologne Schärfung. Phonology 21(2): 251–285.

Hayes, Bruce. 1995. Metrical stress theory: Principles and case studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hyman, Larry M. 2009. How (not) to do phonological typology: the case of pitch-accent. Language Sciences 31(2): 213–238.

Iosad, Pavel. 2015. Pitch accent and prosodic structure in Scottish Gaelic: reassessing the role of contact. New Trends in Nordic and General Linguistics, ed. by Hilpert, Martin, Janet Duke, Christine Mertzlufft, Jan-Ola Östman and Michael Rießler, 28–54. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Iosad, Pavel. 2024. Suprasegmental phenomena in Germanic: Tonal accent. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.

Köhnlein, Björn & Ian Cameron. 2024. What Word-Prosodic Typology is Missing: Motivating Foot Structure as an Analytical Tool for Syllable-Internal Prosodic Oppositions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 42: 1043–1079.

Köhnlein, Björn, Ian Cameron & Oscar Coppola. 2025. It’s all a Matter of Timing: how some Dutch and German Varieties Developed Tonal Contrasts. Language 101(2): 215-250.

Morén-Duolljá, Bruce. 2013. The prosody of Swedish underived nouns: No lexical tones required. Nordlyd 40(1): 196–248.

Morrison, Donald Alasdair. 2019. Metrical structure in Scottish Gaelic: tonal accent, glottalisation and overlength. Phonology 36(3): 391–432.

Prince, Alan. 1980. A metrical theory for Estonian quantity. In Linguistic Inquiry 11: 511–562.

van der Hulst, Harry. 2011. Pitch accent systems. In The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, vol. 2, eds. Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth V. Hume and Keren Rice, 1003–26. London: Wiley-Blackwell.

Zhu, Yuhong. 2023. A metrical analysis of light-initial tone sandhi in Suzhou Wu. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 1–50.