This paper demonstrates the role of word-internal domains in the complex verbal tonology of Kinande, a Bantu language spoken in Zaire. As Hyman (1990) details, Kinande displays sensitivity to the phrase-level prosodic domains by placing boundary tones at the right edges of Phonological Phrases and Intonational Phrases. Under the analysis proposed here, the word-internal domains may also be delimited by boundary tones. These domains are normally referred to as the Stem, Macrostem and Infl domains.

In this paper we reexamine the prosodic system of Yidiji (Australian; Dixon 1977a, b; 1991) as a case supporting an approach to stress assignment in which the construction of bounded feet and the implementation of metrical heads within them occur as separate events (the SEPARABILITY hypothesis; Halle & Vergnaud 1987a,b (= H&V)). Specifically, we argue that a layer of feet assigned early in Yidiji phonological derivations is unheaded and insensitive to weight distinctions, and plays a role in allomorphy. Metrical heads are later assigned to these constituents by independent rules operating under quantity-sensitive principles. In other words, Yidiji employs an additive metrical system in which stressable heads are overlaid on existing foot structures (prosodic overlay). It is the interaction between the outputs of these operations which produces the flexible rhythmic structure for which Yidiji is known. This flexibility is exemplified by the forms in (la) and (lb) (from Dixon 1977a: 40–41), where stress falls on even-numbered and odd-numbered syllables respectively, counted from the left.

One of the crucial ways in which prosodic structure governs the distribution of segments is in terms of sonority. By taking into account what is known′ as the sonority of segments, their arrangement within the syllable follows a clear pattern: the most sonorous segment occupies the peak position, while the less sonorous ones occur towards the margins, as observed in a wide range of literature (Jespersen 1904; Saussure 1916; Zwicky 1972; Hooper 1976; Kiparsky 1979, 1981; Lowenstamm 1981; Steriade 1982; Selkirk 1984; Clements 1990). This specific arrangement of segments within the syllable has been attributed in the previous literature to the principle of sonority sequencing, which relegates segments low in sonority towards syllable margins (see Hooper 1976; Kiparsky 1979, 1981; Steriade 1982; Selkirk 1984; Levin 1985; Clements 1990).