Choguita Rarámuri - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

101) Vowel duration of monosyllabic nominal roots
Unsuff. Gloss Ms Suffixed Gloss Ms
a. kú ‘wood’/ 90 kú-riri ‘wood-Loc’/ 60
‘leña’ ‘leña-Loc’
b. té ‘lice’/ 80 -
‘piojos’
c. lá ‘blood’ / 90 lá-riri ‘blood-Loc’/ 70
‘sangre’ ‘sangre-Loc’
d. mé ‘mezcal’ 100 mé-riri ‘mezcal-Loc’/ 60
‘mezcal-Loc’
e. wá ‘arrows’/ 110 wá-ti ‘arrows-Inst’ 100
‘flechas’ ‘flechas-Loc’
I propose, then, that there is a minimal word constraint which targets open class
verbs. This constraint is defined in (102):
102) Choguita Rarámuri minimal word constraint for verbs
Minimal word (X0) = [µµ]%
According to this definition, all open class verbs in Choguta Rarámuri are at least
two moras (Hyman 1985, Hayes 1986), where consonants are non-moraic.
While vowel length is not contrastive in Choguita Rarámuri, long vowels are
derived to satisfy a minimal word constraint, as proposed in this section. Long vowel
sequences can also be found after semi-vowel deletion (§2.3.2.4.1) and h deletion
(§2.3.2.3.1), and in morphologically restricted contexts (addressed in Chapter 3), such as
compensatory lengthening (§3.5.2.2), and lengthening triggered by a dominant suffix
(§3.5.2.3).
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