[Lexicog] power of nasal consonant

Wed Oct 28 14:35:35 UTC 2015

The key word to look up for this type of change is coalescence, in which two consonants merge into a single consonant, preserving different features of each.

--Jason

--
Jason F. Siegel, Ph.D.
Research Fellow in Lexicography
Director, Centre for Caribbean Lexicography
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
St. Michael
Barbados
jason.siegel at cavehill.uwi.edu<mailto:jason.siegel at cavehill.uwi.edu>
1-246-417-4468

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 10:33 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Lexicog] power of nasal consonant

Interesting data!
I can see the /pn/ --> [m] preserves both the place of the /p/ and the nasality of the /n/. There’s different ways this could be formally analyzed with rules or constraints. Whether 1)  /p/ --> [m] before /n/, and then /n/ disappears, or 2) /n/ --> [m] after /p/, and then /p/ disappears, or 3) some other merging operation, needs more data to figure out. Are there other cases similar to this, or is it limited to this one word?

Also interesting is the directionality. It seems you do NOT get:

ma    tapna  tam    lak-i 'He comes very slowly'.

Right?
As for further insights/analysis, it depends on what your goal is. If you’d like to understand it more deeply, perhaps for a write-up or paper, then great – keep asking, and perhaps someone could guide you through the questions you’d need to answer to figure out the process. If it’s just to have a general idea of what’s going on, then you may not need much more.

Grace to you,

Mike Cahill

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com> [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>]
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 4:41 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] power of nasal consonant

Thanks to all for your response to my query. I would like to discuss a little more in the same line by citing examples from Manipuri/Meithei (T-B language). Let's consider the following:

1. ma    tapna                tapna                lak-i
    3sg    be.slow-Adv    be.slow-Adv    come-Asp    'He comes very slowly'.

In (1) tapna tapna 'very slowly (approx.)' is a case of duplication and this can be contracted in connected speech as in (2) below.

(2)    ma    tam    tapna    lak-i 'He comes very slowly'.

In (2), the first word of the duplication is seen as having 'm' (nasal) as the final segment.
How does /p/ changes to /m/, I suppose, is due to the influence of the following /n/.

Further, the contraction may be extended to the second member of the duplication as in (3)

(3)    ma    tam    tam    lak-i 'He comes very slowly'

Any other possible explanation is sought.

Thanks
surmangol

--------------------------------- Hanjabam Surmangol Sharma Department of Linguistics Manipur University, Canchipur Imphal 795 003 MANIPUR

On Wednesday, 28 October 2015 6:35 AM, "Patrick C patrick.chew at gmail.com<mailto:patrick.chew at gmail.com> [lexicographylist]" <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>> wrote:

To dovetail with previous answers, Korean shows the following:

Sino-Korean
sam ri > sam ni "three ri ('miles')" (三里 삼리)
haeng-ri > haeng-ni "luggage" (行李 행리) [obs.?]

native-Korean:
<-pnita> = [-mnida] -ㅂ니다
formal polite verb ending, eg:
ha- "to do" > hamnida 합니다

other verb endings that cause the same sandhi effect:
<-ni> : <ka-ss-ni> = [kanni] (갔니 "(you) went?")

<-ne> :  <eops-ne> = [eomne] (없네 "there isn't any...")

<-neun-> : <meok-neun-de> = [meongneunde] (먹는데 "even though X eat(s)")

cheers,
-Patrick

Apologies for typos - typed with my thumbs and subject to autocorrect in the most amusing of ways. (i.e. on my iPhone)
On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 7:15 AM, Mike Cahill Mike_Cahill at sil.org<mailto:Mike_Cahill at sil.org> [lexicographylist] <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>> wrote:

Another example, briefly, from Konni of Ghana, again affecting /r/:
/gim-ri/ --> [ginni]  ‘sparrow-the’  (cf. /daa-ri/ --> [daari] ‘day-the’)

I’m sure there are more around the world!

Mike

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com> [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>]
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 8:28 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] power of nasal consonant

Hanjabam Surmango Shama:

In response to your question:  can a nasal consonant affect a oral consonant as the later becomes a nasal?

Yes, a nasal vowel followed by the consonant “r” naturally affects it to sound as an “n.”   Further, a nasal vowel will affect a succeeding vowel to sound as a nasual.

In Báxoje Jiwére language (Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska), a Siouan language:
-- rúmi (buy s.t.) ~ hinnúmiwi  (we buy it)  [hin-...wi (we) + rúmi (buy)
-- Where two vowels are separated by “h, w, y, or glottal stop (^)” nasalization goes across both vowels.  Note:
    pahí (sharp) > pahínhin (thorn);
    yán (sleep)  >  ayán ~ anyán (bed; lay on)
    ki^ín (gamble) > kin^ín (gamble; try)

From: mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 4:58 AM
To: yahoogroups<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Lexicog] power of nasal consonant

Dear All,

I invite your suggestions to the point at which I am curious is -- can a nasal consonant affect a oral consonant as the later becomes a nasal?

thanks
surmangol

--------------------------------- Hanjabam Surmangol Sharma Department of Linguistics Manipur University, Canchipur Imphal 795 003 MANIPUR

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