Oral ~ Nasal Correspondences

[BARudes at aol.com]

The situation with respect to nasality becomes much more complicated when the 
Catawban languages are brought into the picture.  Unlike the Siouan 
languages, there is no evidence to suggest that /m/ and /n/ are secondary 
developments from *w and *r before a nasal vowel.  Rather, *m, *n,*w and *r 
must be reconstructed as independent phonemes for Proto-Catawban,along with a 
contrast between long and short oral vowels and (inherently long) nasal 
vowels.  There is good documentation to show that, in the mid-1800s, Catawba 
began undergoing a process of denasalization, whereby /m/ and /n/ partially 
and then fully denasalized before an oral vowel that was not followed by a 
nasal consonant.  This process, when combined with loan words and a voicing 
of /p/ and /t/ to [b] and [d] before voiced consonants resulted in the 
creation of new phonemes /b/ and /d/. In addition, the phoneme *r was 
nasalized to /n/ in word-initial position when followed by a nasal vowel or 
an oral vowel plus a nasal consonant.  Elsewhere, initial *r merged with /d/.
 
A major contrast between the two documented dialects of Catawba, which 
Siebert named Saraw and Esaw, is that the former frequently (but not always) 
has nasal vowels where the latter has long oral vowels, e.g., Saraw ki~ the : 
Esaw ki: the; Saraw ka~ya: terrapin (accent on the first vowel) :Esaw ka:ya: 
terrapin (accent on the first vowel). There appear to have been similar 
differences between Woccon and Catawba (both dialects), as illustrated by 
Woccon Wittaw Rat (/wi:ta:?/) versus Catawba (both dialects) wi~ta:? rat,and 
Woccon Ikettau Bread and Catawba (both dialects) ikta~? baked.
 
There are also differences in the distribution of nasal versus oral vowels 
between Catawba and Proto-Siouan.  For example, the verb meaning give is ku~ 
in Catawba, versusProto-Siouan *k?u:.
 
At present, based on the Catawba data and at least some of the irregular sets 
within Siouan, I lean toward the reverse of the usual explanation for the 
development of the nasal/oral distribution within Siouan, that is, that 
pre-Proto-Siouan (Proto-Siouan-Catawban) distinguish phonemes *m,*n, *r, *w 
and oral and nasal vowels, and that the nasalization of *r and *w to*n and *m 
before nasal vowels, and the denasalization of *m and *n to *w and *r before 
oral vowels was a Proto-Siouan innovation – an innovation that was not 
implemented in the Catawban languages until the mid-1800s.
 
Blair

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