Defining the prosodic word with segmental processes in Dagbani

Abstract Few studies have explored the relevance of metrical structures in segmental processes. This paper shows that Dagbani (Gur, Ghana), has a prosodic word dominating a trochaic foot which licenses segmental processes and phonotactics. The foot is the domain for marked vowels and unmarked consonants. The prosodic word regulates the sequencing of syllables of different degrees of sonority and weight within a word. The Optimality Theoretic analyses make use of classical metrical theory and prosodic principles used in defining the prosodic word in stress languages to highlight the typological relevance of these principles and the prosodic universality of these metrical structures.