Prenasalized consonant
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Prenasalized consonants are
In most languages, when a prenasalized consonant is described as "voiceless", it is only the oral portion that is voiceless, and the nasal portion is modally
Prenasalized stops may be distinguished from post-oralized or post-stopped nasals (orally released nasals), such as the [mᵇ nᵈ ɲᶡ ŋᶢ] of
Geographic distribution
Africa
The Bantu languages are famous for their prenasalized stops (the "nt" in "Bantu" is an example), but similar sounds occur across Africa and around the world. Ghana's politician Kwame Nkrumah had a prenasalized stop in his name, as does the capital of Chad, N'Djamena (African prenasalized stops are often written with apostrophes in Latin script transcription although this may sometimes indicate syllabic nasals instead). The sound [ŋ͡mg͡b] can also be found in approximately 90 languages in Africa.[9]
East Asia
In
Prenasalized consonants are widely utilized in the
. The following table illustrates the prenasalized consonants in northern Yi.Yi Character | Official Pinyin | IPA | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
ꂃ | nbo | [ᵐbo˧] | skirt |
ꅝ | ndo | [ⁿdo˧] | drink |
ꈾ | mge | [ᵑɡɤ˧] | buckwheat |
ꌅ | nzy | [ⁿd͡zz̩˧] | control |
ꎧ | nry | [ⁿɖ͡ʐʐ̩˧] | wine, liquor |
ꐳ | nji | [ⁿd͡ʑʑ̩˧] | quick, fast |
The prenasalized stops also occur in several branches of the
In dialects of northern Japan, standard voiced stops are prenasalized, and voiceless stops are voiced. For example, /itiɡo/ "strawberry" is [it̠͡ɕiɡo] in most of the south, but [id̠͡ʑɨᵑɡo] in much of the north. Prenasalized stops are also reconstructed for Old Japanese.
Europe
In Greek the orthographic sequences μπ, ντ γκ and γγ are often pronounced as prenasalized voiced stops [ᵐb], [ⁿd], and [ᵑɡ], respectively, especially in formal speech and among older speakers. Among younger Athenian speakers the prenasalization often disappears and in fast speech the voiced stop may be replaced by a fricative. [13] [14]
South America
The
South Asia
The
For example,Sinhala script | IPA | ISO 15919 | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
කද | [ka.d̪ə] | kada | shoulder pole |
කන | [ka.nə] | kana | ear |
කඳ | [ka.ⁿd̪ə] | kan̆da | trunk |
කන්ද | [kan̪.d̪ə] | kanda | hill |
This phonetic information is complemented by phonological evidence: The first vowel in gaambar is lengthened, which only happens in open syllables in Sri Lanka Malay. The syllabification of gaambar must be gaa.mbar then, and the syllabification of sambal sam.bal.
Oceania
An example of the unitary behavior of prenasalized stops is provided by
When Tok Pisin is spoken by people in Papua New Guinea who have similar phonologies in their languages, voiced consonants are prenasalized. For example, the preposition bilong (from English belong) is pronounced [ᵐbiloŋ] by many Melanesians. The prenasalization behaves as a phonetic detail of voicing, rather than a separate segment.
Australia
Prenasalized stops are also found in Australia. The Eastern Arrernte language has both prenasalized stops and prestopped nasals, but does not have any other word-initial consonant clusters. Compare [mʷarə] "good", [ᵐpʷaɻə] "make", [ᵖmʷaɻə] "coolamon".
Transcription
When unambiguous, prenasalized consonants may simply be transcribed ⟨mb, nd, ŋɡ⟩ etc. In the IPA, a tie bar may be used to specify that these are single segments: ⟨m͜b, n͜d, ŋ͡ɡ⟩. Another common transcription practice is to make the nasal superscript: ⟨ᵐb, ⁿd, ᵑɡ⟩. An old convention of the IPA was to mark the nasal as 'short' until the short and the nonsyllabic signs diverged: ⟨m̆b, n̆d, ŋ̆ɡ⟩.[15]
See also
- Preploded nasal
- List of Latin digraphs#M
References
- ^ Silverman (1995:65)
- ^ a b c Feinstein, Mark (1979). "Prenasalization and Syllable Structure". Linguistic Inquiry. 10 (2): 245–278. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
- ^ a b Riehl, Anastasia (January 2008). "NC type combination patterns". The Phonology and Phonetics of Nasal Obstruent Sequences (PDF) (PhD thesis). Cornell University. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
- ^ Chan (1987) "Post-stopped nasals in Chinese: an areal study", UCLA WPP #68
- ^ *Seidel, Frank (2008), A Grammar of Yeyi: A Bantu Language of Southern Africa. R. Köppe.
- ISBN 0-85883-394-8.
- ^ Chan (1987) Post-stopped nasals in Chinese: an areal study
- ^ Cohn (1990) "Phonetic and Phonological Rules of Nasalization", UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 76, p. 7.
- ^ "PHOIBLE 2.0 - Consonant ŋmɡb". phoible.org. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
- ^ Norman, Jerry (January 1974). "The Initials of Proto-Min". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 2 (1). The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press: 27—36.
- ^ Norman, Jerry (May 1973). "Tonal Development in Min". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 1 (2). The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press: 222—238.
- ^ Dai, Ligang (April 2005). 閩語的歷史層次及其演變. China Social Sciences Press.
- S2CID 145606058. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-03-03.
- doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-12-11.
- ^ Principles of the IPA (1947: 17–18)
Sources
- Silverman, Daniel (1995), "Optional, conditional, and obligatory prenasalization in Bafanji", Journal of West African Languages, 25: 57–62