Extraprosodicity and Syllable Structure in Berber - An Optimality-theoretic Analysis

The present study investigates the concept of Extraprosodicity and its relevance to Tamazight syllable structure. This notion has been hinted at in studies carried out within different frameworks: Prosodic Phonology (Ito 1986- 1989); Hayes (1993)); Autosegmental Phonology (Goldsmith (1990)); Prosodic Morphology (McCarthy (1985-1989) and Optimality Theory (McCarthy and Prince (1993); Prince and Smolensky (1993)). However, this notion still needs to be explored further. The reason for this maneuver is twofold: a) to determine what Extraprosodicity is and b) to exactly explain the principles that condition its use. Such limitations make of Extraprosodicity a principal research objective especially that it makes the formulation of rules having to do with Tamazight syllable structure an easy enterprise. This study is thus concerned with the applicability of the notion of extraprosodicity in analysing aspects of syllable structure of a variety of Tamazight spoken in El ksiba . Ait Wirra Tamazight Berber (Henceforth AWTB). Extraprosodicity simply means that syllable-building rules are blind to incorporating certain edge constituents into the structures they build. In the case of syllable structure, the extraprosodicity model uses the notion of Extrasyllabicity.