In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, 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 (, ), lips ...
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 are ...
, 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 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 affricate
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 as in some Chapacuran languages ...
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
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
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 ...
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 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 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
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 Ka ...
,
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
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
, 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 Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Tribe.
...
, 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
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 (since 19 ...
.
Its phonological behavior clearly defines it as a prestopped
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 ...
, 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 Latin ...
of New Caledonia has consonants that have been described as ''
postnasalized'' stops, but could possibly be described as prestopped nasals.
[.]
See also
*
Nasal release
In phonetics, a nasal release is the release of a stop consonant into a nasal. Such sounds are transcribed in the IPA with superscript nasal letters, for example as in English ''catnip'' . In English words such as ''sudden'' in which historicall ...
*
Lateral release (phonetics)
In phonetics, a lateral release is the release of a plosive consonant into a lateral consonant. Such sounds are transcribed in the IPA with a superscript , for example as in English ''spotless'' . In English words such as ''middle'' in which, his ...
*
Prenasalized consonant
Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent (or occasionally a non-nasal sonorant such as ) that behave phonologically like single consonants. The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rathe ...
*
Preaspiration In phonetics, preaspiration (sometimes spelled pre-aspiration) is a period of voicelessness or aspiration preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent, basically equivalent to an -like sound preceding the obstruent. In other words, when an obstru ...
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