The Phonology and Phonetics of Nasal Obstruent Sequences
Creators: name: Riehl, Anastasia K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: phonology
phonetics
nasal-obstruent sequences
Tamambo
Erromangan
Vanautu
Pamona Malay
Manado Malay
Indonesia
segmental structure
partially nasal segments

description: This dissertation explores the relationship between the phonological<br> patterning of nasal-obstruent sequences (NC sequences) and their phonetic<br> realizations. I argue that there are distinct NC patterns in the phonology,<br> specifically unary segments (such as prenasalized stops) vs. clusters, and that<br> these patterns are reflected in the phonetics. The data for these investigations<br> come primarily from phonological and phonetic studies (both acoustic and<br> aerodynamic) collected through fieldwork on four Austronesian<br> languages—Tamambo and Erromangan of Vanuatu, and Pamona and<br> Manado Malay of Indonesia. <br> Clear cases of prenasalized stops, in languages like Fijian, and clusters,<br> in languages like English, provide ample evidence for different phonological<br> NC entities, despite the fact that some languages are more difficult to classify.<br> I propose a methodology for determining the status of an NC, which separates<br> the often-conflated issues of tautosyllabicity and unary segmenthood.<br> Grouping NC-types along two principle divisions—unary vs. cluster, and<br> voiced vs. voiceless obstruent—I argue that only six of sixteen possible<br> patterns (combining 0-4 NC types) are attested. The unattested cases are<br> attributed to two factors: the lack of prenasalized voiceless stops, and the lack<br> of contrasting unary vs. cluster NCs of the same voicing specification. An<br> investigation of phonetic properties of NC sequences, including total NC<br> duration, duration of a preceding vowel, and degree of nasalization in a<br> preceding vowel, reveals that total duration does correlate with phonological<br> NC structure while the other two factors do not. Data on the relative nasaloral<br> timing of NC sequences reveals interesting similarities across the types:<br> voiced NC sequences, NC sequences with a voiceless stop, and NC affricates<br> each have distinct realizations, regardless of phonological status. Not only are phonological NC patterns reflected in the phonetics, but<br> the phonetic realizations also have important consequences for the phonology.<br> The phonetic characteristics of unary vs. cluster NCs—both their differences<br> and similarities—are argued to explain gaps in the phonological patterns.<br> Phonological representations of NCs are proposed that crucially include both<br> prosodic and segmental structure, as well as being consistent with the<br> phonetic facts. These representations have implications for other reported<br> types of partially nasal segments.
description: This thesis is copyrighted, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) - see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Fieldwork for this dissertation was funded by a fellowship from the Fulbright Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program and the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University.