The Metrical Structure of Kashmiri Vanɨvun Sadaf ... - Ars Metrica

Ars metrica – www.arsmetrica.eu – 2012/05
ii. An ideal foot consists of three metrical beats of varying prominence. Thus, the
medial beat corresponds with the shortest and weakest syllable, while the first beat
(syllable) is the strongest in prominence.
iii. The foot-final syllable can either be a CVC or a CV:(C) but never a CV; it must be
metrically repaired if it is quantitatively “weak”.
iv. Disyllabic feet must possess an initial heavy syllable irrespective of whether the
final syllable is monomoraic (CVC) or bimoraic (CV:C). Thus, feet of the type
*CV(C).CV(VC) are not permitted.
v. A syllable occurring in a metrically “weak” position may be lexically stressed.
Alternatively, a syllable occurring in a lexically unstressed position may occur in a
metrically “strong” position but it must be phonetically repaired in order to receive
(metrical) stress.
vi. No outrides or extrametrical positions are permitted; thus, extrametrical elements
are either omitted or highly reduced.
As a poetic genre, Vanɨvun poses a challenge to most available models of poetic
composition where PROMINENCE is treated in terms of metrical asymmetry between
Strong and Weak positions. Based on the above findings, I propose a grid-based
metrical structure for Vanɨvun in (31), which shows three degrees of prominence;
each position in this metrical grid represents a syllable corresponding to Strong,
Weak and Intermediate positions (in that order): 46
(31) A grid-based representation of the metrical structure 47
Foot #: 1 2 3 4
* * * *
* * * * * * * *
Line 1: ↑* * * ↑ * * * ↑ * * * ↑ * * * ↑
* * * *
* * * * * * *
Line 2: ↑* * * ↑ * * * ↑ * * * ↑ * ↑↑
Thus, the metrically most prominent position occupies the left edge of the foot,
whereas the right edge is occupied by the second most-prominent position; the footmedial
position is occupied by the metrically least prominent (weak) syllable. Given
the metrical structure in (31) and the constraints on the assignment of stress in
Kashmiri, it can very well be argued that a typical metrical "foot" in Vanɨvun
behaves like a trisyllabic prosodic word with a medial weak (CV) syllable and a
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