37.2305, Diss: Kwa, Potou, Potou-Tano; Ebrié, Mbato; Historical Linguistics, Language Documentation, Phonetics, Phonology, Typology: Katherine Russell: "Nasality in Atchan: Synchrony, Diachrony and Typology"

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2305. Thu Jul 09 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2305, Diss: Kwa, Potou, Potou-Tano; Ebrié, Mbato; Historical Linguistics, Language Documentation, Phonetics, Phonology, Typology: Katherine Russell: "Nasality in Atchan: Synchrony, Diachrony and Typology"

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Date: 09-Jul-2026
From: Katherine Russell [katherine.russell at berkeley.edu]
Subject: Nasality in Atchan: Synchrony, Diachrony and Typology


Institution: University of California Berkeley
Program: Linguistics
Degree Date: 2026
Level: PhD

Author: Katherine Russell

Dissertation Title: Nasality in Atchan: Synchrony, Diachrony and
Typology

Dissertation URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5xq9m6nm

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Language Documentation
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology
                     Typology

Subject Language(s): Ebrié (ebr, ebri1238)
                     Mbato (gwa, mbat1247)

Language Family(ies): Kwa
                      Potou (poto1250)
                      Potou-Tano (poto1254)

Dissertation Director(s): Hannah Sande

Dissertation Abstract:

The focus of this dissertation is nasality and nasalization in Atchan,
a Potou language of the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo spoken in and around
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Unlike most of the world’s languages, Atchan
lacks a phonemic contrast for nasality in consonants. Nasality
nonetheless plays an important role in Atchan, at multiple levels of
grammar. Drawing on data collected over years of documentation work
with Atchan speakers, I propose that surface nasality in the language
is attributable to three phenomena: lexically specified nasality at
the level of the syllable, articulatorily motivated carryover
nasalization across syllable boundaries, and the docking of floating
[+nasal] autosegmental features which express certain morphological
features. Throughout, I support descriptive generalizations with
evidence from articulatory measurements, including spectral
information and nasal and oral airflow measurements. These findings
have important implications for the typology and representation of
nasal contrast: specifically, the Atchan data contributes to ongoing
discussion of nasal contrast systems, supporting the view that systems
which lack a contrast for nasality in consonants may be better
characterized as instantiating prosodic rather than segmental
nasality, in which [nasal] is a syllable-level feature that
secondarily enhances a sonority contrast in consonants.
In the dissertation, I situate Atchan nasality and nasalization within
the larger picture of the Potou-Tano branch of the Kwa family, drawing
on a detailed survey of 30 languages spoken across Côte d’Ivoire and
Ghana. In languages where consonant nasality is predictable from
surrounding phonological context, nasality operates as a dimension of
another consonant contrast: this contrast is sonority in Atchan,
inherited from Proto-Potou-Tano. In many Tano languages, this contrast
is voicing. Atchan, as one of only two Potou-Tano languages which
maintains a four-way contrast between voiceless fortis (aspirated),
voiceless lenis (unaspirated), voiced fortis (obstruent), and voiced
lenis (sonorant) consonants, represents an important piece in the
puzzle in understanding this nasal contrast system.



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