VN > V in Camuno: an alternative historical pathway to nasal loss

• Autores: Michela Cresci
• Localización: Italian journal of linguistics, ISSN 1120-2726, Vol. 31, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 61-92
• Idioma: italiano
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Internal reconstruction as well as comparative evidence demonstrate that historical loss of coda nasals in some varieties of Camuno has occurred, and involves four phonetic or phonological variables: stress, cluster vs singleton coda, voicing of the following obstruent in NC clusters, and place of articulation of the nasal. While historical loss of coda nasals is evident in other Romance languages, the absence of vowel nasalization and the occurrence of historical wordfinal obstruent devoicing in Camuno (Cresci 2014) make this historical development of special interest. In this study I suggest phonetic factors that may explain differential loss of *n vs *m in word-final position of stressed syllables, the role of obstruent voicing, and absence of contrastive nasalized vowels in the history of Camuno. I argue that Camuno exemplifies an alternative historical pathway to nasal loss, one in which nasals are lost without a trace, leaving behind plain oral vowels. Ohala & Busà (1995) account for such pathway as the inverse of spontaneous nasalization.