Pausa

In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek 'παῦσις' pausis 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic units. In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek 'παῦσις' pausis 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic units. Some sound laws specifically operate only in pausa. For example, certain phonemes may be pronounced differently at the beginning or the end of a word if no other word precedes or follows within the same prosodic unit, as in the citation form. That is the case with the final-obstruent devoicing of German, Turkish, Russian, and other languages whose voiced obstruent consonants are devoiced pre-pausa and before voiceless consonants. The opposite environment is relevant in Spanish; its voiced fricatives become stops post-pausa and after nasals. Such environments are often termed pre-pausal and post-pausal, respectively. The phrases in pausa and pausal form are often taken to mean at the end of a prosodic unit, in pre-pausal position, as pre-pausal effects are more common than post-pausal effects. In English, the last stressed syllable before a pausa receives tonic stress, giving the illusion of a distinction between primary and secondary stress. In dialects of English with linking or intrusive R (a type of liaison), the r is not realized in pausa even if the following word begins in a vowel. Similarly, French liaison does not operate in pausa. English words that have weak and strong forms are realized as strong after and often also before a pausa. In Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, and other Semitic languages and in Egyptian, pausa affects grammatical inflections. In Arabic, short vowels, including those carrying case, are dropped before a pausa, and the gender is modified. The Arabic alphabet has a letter ة (tāʾ marbūṭa تاء مربوطة) for the feminine that is classically pronounced in pausa but in liaison. In Biblical Hebrew, /laχ/ (.mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-size:1.15em;font-family:'Ezra SIL','Ezra SIL SR','Keter Aram Tsova','Taamey Ashkenaz','Taamey David CLM','Taamey Frank CLM','Frank Ruehl CLM','Keter YG','Shofar','David CLM','Hadasim CLM','Simple CLM','Nachlieli','SBL BibLit','SBL Hebrew',Cardo,Alef,'Noto Serif Hebrew','Noto Sans Hebrew','David Libre',David,'Times New Roman',Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans}לָךְ) is the general feminine form of 'to you' but also the pausal masculine form. In Spanish, voiced fricative/approximants are pronounced as stops after a pausa, as well as after a nasal. In Tuscan, the full infinitive form of the verb occurs only pre-pausa. In Kombe, a word-final high tone becomes low or downstepped in pausa.