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Conlanging with a Metrical grid

George Corley

Conlangery Podcast

www.conlangery.com

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When could I use a metrical grid for my stress system?

When is a metrical grid useful?

Complex weight-sensitive systems
Working with secondary stress
(Higher level structure)

When is it not useful?

Simple, regular systems. If you want to stress the same syllable every time, just pick your syllable.

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What is a metrical grid?

A way to map out levels of prominence within a word, phrase, etc.
Each syllable will end up with a number of marks relative to its prominence.
Words will be divided into prosodic units (such as feet), and then the more prominent syllable is computed.

Line 2	x
Line 1	(x
Line 0	x	x)	x	x
	L	L	L	L
	ba	ba	mi	na
	babamina

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The Simplified Bracketed Grid

Proposed by Halle and Idsardi (1987)
Uses an algorithm to provide boundaries, then project a prominent “head” to the next level of the grid.
Doesn’t name the prosodic units used.
Generally avoids extrametricality or catalexis.
This is based on a later revision in Idsardi (2009)

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Types of Rules

Grouping Rules

Decide how to group your metrical units

Projection Rules

Decide which unit in a group gets projected to the next level

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Grouping Rules

Insert a Right ) or Left ( bracket
Every 2 or 3 syllables
Starting from the Right or Left edge
Apply Iteratively or Non-Iteratively
Skip or Insert on the first line

R2LIS

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Grouping Rules

Let’s start with the last two, Iterative/Non-Iterative and Skip/Insert.

R2LIS

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Grouping Rules

If your rule is Non-Iterative and Insert, you can ignore the number.

R2LNI

R_RNI xxxxxx) xxxxxxx)	R_LNI x)xxxxx x)xxxxxx
L_RNI xxxxx(x�xxxxxx(x	L_LNI (xxxxxx�(xxxxxxx

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Grouping Rules

If your rule is Non-Iterative and Skip, it gets a little more exciting.

R2LNS

R2RNS xxxxx)x�xxxxxx)x	R2LNS xx)xxxx xx)xxxxx	R3RNS xxxx)xx�xxxxx)xx	R3LNS xxx)xxx xxx)xxxx
L2RNS xxxx(xx�xxxxx(xx	L2LNS x(xxxxx x(xxxxxx	L3RNS xxx(xxx�xxxx(xxx	L3LNS xx(xxxx xx(xxxxx

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Grouping Rules

Then you can make it Iterative for some rhythm, combined with a Skip.

R2LIS

R2RIS x)xx)xx)x�xx)xx)xx)x	R2LIS xx)xx)xx) xx)xx)xx)x	R3RIS x)xxx)xx�xx)xxx)xx	R3LIS xxx)xxx) xxx)xxx)x
L2RIS (xx(xx(xx�x(xx(xx(xx	L2LNS x(xx(xx(x x(xx(xx(xx	L3RIS (xxx(xxx�x(xxx(xxx	L3LIS xx(xxx(x xx(xxx(xx

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Grouping Rules

Or Iterative combined with an Insert.

R2LII

R2RII xx)xx)xx) x)xx)xx)xx)	R2LII x)xx)xx)x x)xx)xx)xx)	R3RII xxx)xxx) x)xxx)xxx)	R3LII x)xxx)xx x)xxx)xxx)
L2RII x(xx(xx(x�(xx(xx(xx(x	L2LNI x(xx(xx(x�(xx(xx(xx(x	L3RII xx(xxx(x�(xxx(xxx(x	L3LII xx(xxx(x�(xxx(xxx(x

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Reality check

I included patterns for rules iterating over 3 units, but that’s actually typologically rare.
Iterating over 2 units is much more common.

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Weight-sensitivty

Place a Right or Left bracket to the Right/Left of a heavy syllable

Always placed on the same side

x	(x	x
L	H	L
bu	buu	la

x	x)	x
L	H	L
bu	buu	la

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Projection Rules

Project the Rightmost/Leftmost unit of a group
Project Right/Left/No brackets

Line 1	Project L		x		x
Line 0	R2LIS	x	x)	x	x)
		ba	ba	mi	na

Line 1	Project R	x		x
Line 0	R2LIS	x	x)	x	x)
		ba	ba	mi	na

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Projection Rules

Project the Rightmost/Leftmost unit of a group
Project Right/Left/No brackets

Line 1			x		x
Line 0	R2LIS Project L	x	x)	x	x)
		ba	ba	mi	na

Line 1			x)		x)
Line 0	R2LIS Project L�Project L)	x	x)	x	x)
		ba	ba	mi	na

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Let’s Conlang

We’ll start with some sample words.

x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
L	H	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	H	L	H	L
ku	kuu	la	‘at	ba	ba	mi	na	ki	ri	na	too	ra
kukuula’at				babamina				kiriinatoo

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Let’s Conlang

Now we will choose a grouping rule.

Line 0	R2LNS	x	x)	x	x	x	x)	x	x	x	x)	x	x	x
		L	H	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	H	L	H	L
		ku	kuu	la	‘at	ba	ba	mi	na	ki	ri	na	too	ra
		kukuula’at				babamina				kiriinatoo

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Let’s Conlang

How about heavy syllables?

Line 0	R2LNS Heavy R	x	(x)	x	x	x	x)	x	x	x	x)	x	(x	x
		L	H	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	H	L	H	L
		ku	kuu	la	‘at	ba	ba	mi	na	ki	ri	na	too	ra
		kukuula’at				babamina				kiriinatoo

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Let’s Conlang

Get the next layer

Line 1			x			x				x			x
Line 0	R2LNS Heavy L Project L	x	(x)	x	x	x	x)	x	x	x	x)	x	(x	x
		L	H	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	H	L	H	L
		ku	kuu	la	‘at	ba	ba	mi	na	ki	ri	na	too	ra
		kukuula’at				babamina				kiriinatoo

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Let’s Conlang

Oh, let’s make sure we get only one primary stress.

Line 2			x			x							x
Line 1	L_RNI�Project R		(x			(x				x			(x
Line 0	R2LNS Heavy L Project L	x	(x)	x	x	x	x)	x	x	x	x)	x	(x	x
		L	H	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	H	L	H	L
		ku	kuu	la	‘at	ba	ba	mi	na	ki	ri	na	too	ra
		kukuula’at				babamina				kiriinatoo

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Let’s Conlang

What if we tweak one variable? Yes this kind of thing can happen. (Kumaran 2023)

Line 2			x				x							x
Line 1	L_RNI�Project R		(x				(x				x			(x
Line 0	R2LNS Heavy L Project R	x	(x)	x	x	x	x)	x	x	x	x)	x	(x	x
		L	H	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	H	L	H	L
		ku	kuu	la	‘at	ba	ba	mi	na	ki	ri	na	too	ra
		kukuula’at				babamina				kiriinatoo

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Things to note

Always stay rooted in typology
You will need to make some other decisions

What counts as a heavy syllable?
Are you going to do secondary stress?

You may need some other rules in addition to this

Stress clash rules might be necessary
Other phonological rules might occur within the derivation

Above all, have fun!

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Bibliography

Halle, Morris, and William J. Idsardi. 1995. “General Properties of Stress and Metrical Structure.” The Handbook of Phonological Theory, no. 1987 : 403–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/b.9780631201267.1996.00013.x.

Idsardi, William James. 1992. “THE COMPUTATION OF PROSODY.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Idsardi, W.J., 2009. Calculating metrical structure. Contemporary views on architecture and representations in phonology, 48, pp.191-212.

Kumaran, Elango. 2023. “Adjustable Word Edges and Weight-Sensitive Stress.” In Proceedings of AMP 2022. UCLA.