mora (n.)

A term used in traditional studies of METRICS to refer to a minimal unit of metrical time or weight, and now used in some models of NON-LINEAR PHONOLOGY (e.g. METRICAL and PROSODIC phonology) as a separate level of phonological representation. The analysis of SEGMENTS into moras is usually applied only to the syllabic NUCLEUS and CODA (the RHYME), and not to the ONSET (‘onset/rhyme asymmetry’). Moraic structure accounts for many of the phenomena described in other models by such notions as the SKELETAL TIER. In the prosodic HIERARCHY, the moraic level is symbolized by µ (‘mu’). The notion of mora counting is used to handle languages where there is an opposition between heavy (two-mora, or bimoraic) syllables and light (one-mora, or monomoraic) syllables, and the equivalence between various types of heavy syllable. In Latin, for example, a long vowel was equivalent to two short vowels or to a short vowel plus consonant.