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Universal 1950:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1950:

Original
Partial or complete denasalization of nasal consonants would occur only in languages with oral-nasal vowel contrast.
Standardized
IF there is partial or complete denasalization of nasal consonants, THEN there is a contrast of oral and nasal vowels.
Keywords
vowel, nasal, oral, denasalization
Domain
phonology
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical (according to author absolute)
Basis
?
Source
Hyman 1975
Counterexamples
Languages in which there are no phonemic nasal vowels but denasalization of nasal consonants occurs include Asmat, Cantonese, Cham, Diegueno, Korean, and Telefol. However, such denasalization occurs either preconsonantally (as epenthetic stops in English), before high vowels, or after long vowels. Intervocalic denasalization not specifically conditioned by quality or length of the adjacent vowel, then, seems to be limited to languages with distinctive nasal vowels, as Hyman predicted. (Kawasaki 1986: 85)

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

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