Trying To Find A Word...

[Arcane]

It's the term used to describe a language that follows a tempo separated by consonant/vowel pairs. Languages like:

Hawaiian: A-lo-ha. Ma-ha-lo.

Tagalog (Filipino): Ka-mu-sta ka. Ma-li-ga-ya-ng ba-ti.

Japanese might be one too... Do-mo a-ri-ga-to.

Anyone know?

[jorlyfish]

I know what you're describing, trying to think if there is a word for it. I agree that Japanese can be sort of included in there though -- katakana and romaji are paired off in consonant/vowel pairs (or just vowels) with a few exceptions -- "n" and "shi"(which I guess you could say is a sound/vowel since "sh" is a concrete sound).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(linguistics) <-- this might help. The stress within words is called lexical stress. There's a section in here about languages following stress patterns as well but nothing about any of the ones you listed...

It says Japanese has "mora timing" - syllables are spoken at a fixed rate regardless of stress - but I realize this isn't the word or phrase you're looking for either.

Is it rhythmic stress?

[Arcane]

Thanks Jordan, but I don't think that's the term I'm looking for. Mora timing is close, but I think that's more focused on the stress timing for syllables instead of the pacing as a whole.

Funny thing, the only time I remember hearing the term was from a tour guide in Waikiki. :\

[jorlyfish]

Are you looking for the fact that it's every other syllable stressed, or the fact that the syllables are in consonant/vowel pairings?

[viper151]

Ouh I know what you mean. Greek language is like that.
But I can't really understand the word you're looking for.

[Arcane]

[quote name='jorlyfish' timestamp='1324535111' post='533564']
Are you looking for the fact that it's every other syllable stressed, or the fact that the syllables are in consonant/vowel pairings?
[/quote]The latter.

[Arcane]

After reading more into it....it seems like it is mora. Thanks again.

[viper151]

[quote name='Arcane' timestamp='1324574162' post='533596']
[quote name='jorlyfish' timestamp='1324535111' post='533564']
Are you looking for the fact that it's every other syllable stressed, or the fact that the syllables are in consonant/vowel pairings?
[/quote]The latter.
[/quote]
Well I would go with spelling.
We do not have a word for spelling as in J-O-H-N . We have this word : συλλαβίζω which if you go to any greek-english dictionary, it is translated as spelling.
Also συλλαβη is each one of them for example in the word ma-ha-lo each pair is a συλλαβή. The translation of this word in google translate is syllable although I'm not sure of its meaning.


What is mora btw?? Edited December 22, 2011 by viper151

[viper151]

Take a look at this also
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochrony"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochrony[/url]