Against words with two main stresses: The case of Guugu Yimidhirr revisited

Résumé 0

The aim of this article is to re-examine and argue against the existence of words with two main stresses in Guugu Yimidhirr, a Pama-Nyungan language spoken in Queensland, Australia. Based on phonological evidence from patterns of clash avoidance and the distribution of secondary stress, it is claimed that in words alleged to have two main-stressed syllables, each syllable has a different metrical status. Only the initial syllable is main-stressed, while the second is treated as unstressed in Guugu Yimidhirr's metrical phonology. In contrast to previous analyses found in the literature to solve the puzzle posed by Guugu Yimidhirr's double-headed words, this study finds no empirical support that motivates the weakening of prosodic theory by either allowing recursion at the level of the Prosodic Word or by proposing the existence of disyllabic feet with both of their syllables stressed.