The treatment of long vowels in word games

In the current nonlinear model of CV phonology (Clements & Keyser 1983), phonological representations are organised into several levels or tiers, of which the following three are the most significant: the central CV tier (skeleton), whose units, C and V, are autosegmentally associated with the units of the syllable tier on one end and with the units of the segmental tier on the other. The segmental tier itself is organised into subtiers of distinctive features; the internal structure of the syllable tier is subject to considerable debate in the literature. In addition, CV-level units may be linked to melodies on separate autosegmental tiers in the case of suprasegmental phenomena like tone and vowel harmony.