The key to Czech vowel length

templatic activity that I have identified may be quoted in the frame of an abstract. In Scheer (forth), it is demonstrated that there is a templatic restriction on the morphological item [vowel-final prefix+root] for denominal nouns: the vocalic weight of this object is exactly three morae. If the root is long, the prefix will be short; if the root is short, the prefix will be long. Table (#) shows this regularity for the diminutive/ agentive suffix ek, -ka, -ec. As prefixes may be long only if they are attached to a demoninal noun whose root is short, the ban against words with both long prefixes and roots is surface-true: for the prefix za- for instance, *z - VV does not occur at all in Czech. The regularity concerning iterative-formation that is illustrated in table (2)-(3) follows the same pattern, and it governs the entire paradigm. Iteratives are made in verb-classes 3, 5 and 6, that is involving the thematic elements e-, in classes 3 and 5 produce results with long roo