Pre-stopped Consonant
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In
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 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 nasal . 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 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 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
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 ( ...
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 (Adnyamathanha), Arabana, Wangkangurru, 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, especially in the North Aslian languages and Shompen, 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
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 ( ...
, 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..


See also

* Nasal release * Lateral release (phonetics) *
Prenasalized consonant Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent (or occasionally a non-nasal sonorant) that behave phonologically like single consonants. The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rather than ...
* Preaspiration


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