The Estonian quantity degrees are characterized
by the following durational models: Q1 – Syll1 nucleus
< Syll2 nucleus; Q2 – Syll1 nucleus ≥ coda ≤
Syll2 nucleus; Q3 – Syll1 nucleus < coda > Syll2
nucleus. It is possible to regard the quantity degrees as three-moraic
units that tend to be isochronic in a foot. The long light syllable
in a Q2 foot and the heavy syllable in a Q3 foot differ in opposite
mora-splitting.
Each prosodic foot is characterized by a quantity degree. It
is possible to interpret a monosyllabic word or a monosyllabic
foot as a virtual disyllabic (and therefore tri-moraic) unit
in which the weak part is the so-called degenerate syllable.
According to this interpretation a heavy syllable appears in
two ways: 1) it either occurs in a virtual disyllabic foot with
a degenerate syllable, or 2) it constitutes the strong part of
a real disyllabic foot, that is, the stressed syllable, and thus
it provides for the iso- chrony of both feet. In the syllabic
theory this difference remains unnoticed.
In word that consists of more than one foot there is a change
in progress by which the degenerate syllable in a two-part foot
is not perceived as a metrically weak part of the foot, and to
avoid an unacceptable stress clash the foot is changed into a
disyllabic foot with a real weak part. For example, in place
of (truu:)(tuse)le the form of (truu:tu)(sele)
is often pronounced. The change is facilitated by the gradational
nature of the difference in the ratios of syllabic codas and
nuclei, whereas an opposite tendency is observed in Q2 and Q3
feet.
