linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, pre-stopping, also known as pre-occlusion or pre-plosion, is a phonological process involving the historical or allophonic insertion of a very short

stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...

before a

sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels a ...

, such as a short before a

nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery * ...

or a

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may also refer to: Biology and healthcare * Lateral (anatomy), a term of location meaning "towards the side" * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle, an intrinsic muscle of the larynx * Lateral release ( ...

, or a short before a

. The resulting sounds () are called pre-stopped consonants, or sometimes pre-ploded or (in Celtic linguistics) pre-occluded consonants, although technically may be considered an occlusive/stop without the pre-occlusion. A pre-stopped consonant behaves

phonologically Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...

as a single consonant. That is, like

affricate An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...

s and

trilled affricate In articulatory phonetics, trilled affricates, also known as post-trilled consonants, are consonants which begin as a stop and have a trill release. These consonants are reported to exist in some Northern Paman languages in Australia, as well a ...

s, the reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants lies primarily in their behavior. Phonetically they are similar or equivalent to stops with a

release.

Terminology

There are three terms for this phenomenon. The most common by far is ''prestopped/prestopping''. In descriptions of the languages of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific, ''preploded/preplosion'' is common, though ''prestopped'' is also used. In accounts of Celtic languages, ''preoccluded/preocclusion'' is used almost exclusively. Technically, nasals are already occlusives, and are often considered stops; however, some prefer to restrict the term 'stop' for consonants in which there is complete cessation of airflow, so 'prenasalized stop' and 'prestopped nasal' are not necessarily tautologies.

In European languages

In Manx, pre-occlusion occurs in stressed monosyllabic words (i.e. words one syllable long), and is also found in Cornish on certain stressed syllables. The inserted stop is homorganic with the sonorant, which means it has the same

place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...

. Long vowels are often shortened before pre-occluded sounds. In transcription, pre-occluding consonants in final position are typically written with a superscripted letter in Manx and in Cornish. Examples in Manx include: * → : → "heavy" * → : → "walking" * → : → "head" * → : → "birds" * → : → "ship" In Cornish, pre-occlusion mostly affects the reflexes of older geminate/fortis , intrinsically geminated in Old Cornish, and (or /N/ depending on preferred notation). It also arises in a few cases where the combination was apparently re-interpreted as . Examples in Cornish: * → : "mother" * → : "this" * → : "head" * → : "heads" In Faroese, pre-occlusion also occurs, as in ''kallar'' 'you call, he calls', ''seinna'' 'latter'. A similar feature occurs in Icelandic, as in ''galli'' ('error'); ''sæll'' , ''seinna'' ; ''Spánn'' .

In Australian languages

Pre-stopped nasals and laterals are found in some

Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

, such as

Kuyani The Kuyani people, also written Guyani and other variants, and also known as the Nganitjidi, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia who speak the Kuyani language. Their traditional lands are to the west of the Flinder ...

(Adnyamathanha),

Arabana The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia. Name The older tribal autonym was Ngarabana, which may have been misheard by white settlers as Arabana, the term now is generally accepted by ne ...

, Wangkangurru,

Diyari The Diyari (), alternatively transcribed as Dieri (), is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre. Language Diyari is classified as one of the ...

Aranda Aranda may refer to: Places * Aranda, Village in Goh Block, Aurangabad, Bihar * Aranda, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in Canberra, Australia, named after the Arrernte or Aranda Indigenous people * Aranda (comarca), a ''comarca'' (county) ...

(nasals only), and Martuthunira (laterals only). Adnyamathanha, for example, has the pre-stopped nasals and the pre-stopped laterals , though these are all in allophonic variation with the simple nasals and laterals .

In Mon–Khmer languages

Pre-stopped nasals are also found in several branches of

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...

, especially in the

North Aslian languages The Jahaic or Northern Aslian languages (also called Jehaic or Semang) are a group of Aslian languages spoken by about 5,000 people in inland areas of Peninsular Malaysia, with a few pockets in southern Thailand. The most distinctive language in ...

and

Shompen The Shompen or Shom Pen are the Indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Shompen are designated as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group within the list o ...

, where historical word-final nasals, *m *n *ŋ, have become pre-stopped, or even full voiced stops .

In Austronesian languages

Hiw of Vanuatu is the only

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...

language that has been reported to have a pre-stopped

velar lateral approximant The voiced velar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used as a distinct consonant in a very small number of spoken languages in the world. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small ...

. Its phonological behavior clearly defines it as a prestopped

, rather than as a laterally released stop.

Nemi Nemi is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome (central Italy), in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Nemi, a volcanic crater lake. It is northwest of Velletri and about southeast of Rome. The town's name derives from the Lati ...

of New Caledonia has consonants that have been described as '' postnasalized'' stops, but could possibly be described as prestopped nasals..

References

Bibliography

* * * *Jeff Mielke, 2008. ''The emergence of distinctive features''. * {{citation , doi=10.2307/3623111 , last=Ozanne-Rivierre , first=Françoise , author-link=Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre , year=1995 , title=Structural changes in the languages of Northern New Caledonia , journal=Oceanic Linguistics , volume=34 , issue=1 , pages=45–72 , jstor=3623111 Plosives Nasal consonants