The second mora of the right-aligned bimoraic trochee (the final rhyme is extrametrical) can be filled with a consonant or with the lengthened vowel.
A monomoraic trochee is the least harmonic foot, but a possible foot nonetheless.
Since it requires that stressed syllables in general be heavy, it requires that the stressed syllable of a trochee be heavy.
This ranking accounts for penultimate stress by ensuring that a bimoraic trochee is placed as close as possible to the right edge of the word.
This expansion of the trochee must be most harmonic compared to other potential trochees.
If epenthesis really is a means of creating bisyllabic trochees, we expect to observe a rhythmic effect in the unambiguous cases in the first place.
Below, we examine the potential for foot-minimality to account for weight-sensitivity in generalised trochee languages.
Moreover, epenthesis did not often change a monosyllabic foot into a bisyllabic trochee.
