Syllable cut, moras, and quantity change in Dutch

Most research on the prosodic phenomenon of syllable cut to date has been restricted to German. Syllable cut has also failed thus far to receive an adequate account within moraic theory, which has led some syllable cut theorists (e.g., Vennemann 1994) to reject moraic theory in favour of alternate prosodic theories. This thesis provides a moraic account of syllable cut based on mora-sharing along the lines of Broselow et al. 1997, thus rendering alternate theories unnecessary. It also shows that syllable cut is present in Dutch, and argues that the quantity changes of Middle Dutch represent a transition from a quantity system to a syllable cut system as proposed for German and English by Vennemann (2000) and Murray (2000, in press).