Quantity Sensitivity
Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D. McCawley in 1968: a mora is “omething of which a long syllable consists of two and a short syllable consists of one.” The term comes from the Latin word for “linger, delay”, which was also used to translate the Greek word chronos (time) in its metrical sense.
A syllable containing one mora is said to be monomoraic; a syllable with two moras is said to be bimoraic. Also, in rarer cases, a syllable with three moras is said to be trimoraic.
Read more about Quantity Sensitivity: Formation
Famous quotes containing the words quantity and/or sensitivity:
“Something is infinite if, taking it quantity by quantity, we can always take something outside.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“The vanity of men, a constant insult to women, is also the ground for the implicit feminine claim of superior sensitivity and morality.”
—Patricia Meyer Spacks (b. 1929)