The Emergence of Quantity-Sensitivity in Latin

Abstract

This paper presents an Optimality-Theoretic description of the evolution of the stress system from Pre-Classical to Classical Latin. The analysis of the evolution proceeds in two steps. First, a comparison of the grammars before and after the changes in terms of constraint ranking is shown to account straightforwardly for the intermediate Early Classical Latin stress system (with stress on the pre-antepenultimate syllable in only one prosodie context) and to make the prediction that secondary stress in Classical Latin was quantity-sensitive. Second, the actual causes of the prosodie changes are discussed. The change from a left word-edge to a right word-edge stress system is attributed to a conflict that arose between the demarcative and morphological function of stress, more specifically, to indeterminacy in the data coupled with enclitic pre-stressing suffixes. After that, Iambic Shortening, the shortening of heavy syllables in some positions, is shown to be crucial in assessing the nature of Classical Latin secondary stress. An analysis of shortening in Latin is provided which takes into account the sensitivity of word- internal Shortening to a following stressed syllable, and which also captures the differences of its application to syllables heavy by position (closed syllables) and to syllables heavy by nature (syllables with a long vowel). Finally, the theoretical implications of the analysis for languages with mixed stress systems are discussed. It is argued that, rather than adding constraints that cannot deal with all cases of mixed quantity, a derivational OT approach allows a straightforward account of mixed stress systems.