Universal #945
Legacy number: 945
| Number | 942 |
| Original | Nasalized vowels always arise from a sequence of vowel and nasal consonant origin. |
| Standardized | Nasalized vowels always arise from a sequence of vowel and nasal consonant origin. |
| Keywords | nasalized, vowel, nasal, consonant |
| Domain | phonology |
| Type | target < source |
| Status | diachronic |
| Quality | absolute |
| Basis | languages in Greenberg 1966b |
| Source | Greenberg 1966b: 514, based on Ferguson 1963, cited in Ferguson 1974: 11 |
Discussion
Counterexamples
1. This should exclude the rare cases of “spontaneous nasalization” which can be found in English and Japanese. <ADS>2. Campbell (1980: 21) mentions Proto-Algonquian [*a] changing to a nasal vowel in Eastern Algonquian, due to contact with Iroquoian languages. He does not consider this a true counterexample, however, because this exception has an external origin, from areal diffusion, not intrinsic value. The same issue is briefly discussed in Sherzer 1972: 267-268.
Notes
1. For a similar generalization about the formation of nasal vowels, cf. ##943, 944.2. Ferguson further specifies the “conventional” origin of a nasal vowel as the loss of a following nasal stop (1974: 11).
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2. Ferguson further specifies the "conventional" origin of a nasal vowel as the loss of a following nasal stop (Ferguson 1974: 11).