Abstract

Proposals for foot structure in Old English have hitherto been restricted mainly to syllable-based accounts and formulated such a phonological process as high vowel deletion in terms of syllable-counting feet. I argue here, however, that syllable-based accounts are inadequate both descriptively and explanatorily even if they utilize two metrical planes, because there are some examples whose stress location is not expected and other processes than high vowel deletion (e.g. resolution, Sievers's Law, and West Germanic gemination) are not captured uniformly. I present an integrated and uniplanar theory of Old English prosody, making judicious use of moras instead of syllables. This amounts to saying that the language is mora-counting.