Empty nuclei in Nivkh

In Nivkh, disyllabic forms which end in a consonant are marginal; many of them are loan words: arak 'alcohol' (Uilta arakki) peres 'pepper' (Russian perets). Interestingly, some of the consonant-final disyllabic forms have a monosyllabic variant, which is the preferred one in colloquial speech: nonoq~nonq 'puppy'. Adaptation pattern in loan word phonology further underscores this preference: sizm 'Japanese' (Ainu sisam). I assume that a consonant-final disyllabic form is disfavored since it causes a violation of Foot binarity (McCarthy and Prince 1993). This assumption is viable only with the premise that a domain-final consonant is obligatorily followed by an empty nucleus: CVCVC(V). In order to circumvent this violation of Foot binarity, the vowel in the weak member of the foot is deleted.