The iambic/trochaic law: Nature or nurture?

Abstract The iambic/trochaic law (ITL) asserts that listeners associate louder sounds with group onsets and longer sounds with group endings. The ITL has interested theoretical phonologists since Hayes' (1995) proposal that it may describe the perceptual underpinnings of the Foot Inventory (Hayes, 1995; McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1996). This article surveys the growing experimental literature exploring perceptual ITL effects. The experimental findings to date suggest that ITL effects have both a “nature” and a “nurture” component, are documented for a variety of species, and are cross‐modal in humans. Questions are raised as to whether there is likely to be a natural connection between ITL effects and the foot inventory.