In linguistics, 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, such as a short before a nasal or a

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Healthcare *Lateral (anatomy), an anatomical direction *Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle *Lateral release (surgery), a surgical procedure on the side of a kneecap Phonetics *Lateral cons ...

. 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 is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

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 pair ...

s and trilled affricates, 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 nasal or

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 a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...

. 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 Flinde ...

(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 generally accepted by new ge ...

Wangkangurru The Wangkangurru, also written Wongkanguru and Wangkanguru, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Simpson Desert area in the state of South Australia. They also refer to themselves as Nharla. Country Norman Tindale estimated their tribal sw ...

, Diyari, Aranda (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 in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

, especially in the

North Aslian languages The 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 the group ...

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 a designated Scheduled Tribe. Etymology and autonym "Shompen" is po ...

, 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 language that has been reported to have a pre-stopped velar lateral approximant . Its phonological behavior clearly defines it as a prestopped

, rather than as a laterally released stop. Nemi 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