Inlinguistics,pre-stopping, also known aspre-occlusion orpre-plosion, is a phonological process involving the historical or allophonic insertion of a very shortstop consonant before asonorant, such as a short[d] before anasal[n] or alateral[l], or a short[p] before anasal[m]. The resulting sounds ([ᵈn,ᵈl,ᵖm]) are calledpre-stopped consonants, or sometimespre-ploded or (in Celtic linguistics)pre-occluded consonants, although technically[n] may be considered anocclusive/stop without the pre-occlusion.
A pre-stopped consonant behavesphonologically as a single consonant. That is, likeaffricates andtrilled affricates, the reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants lies primarily in their behavior.[1] Phonetically they are similar or equivalent to stops with anasal orlateral release.
There are three terms for this phenomenon. The most common by far isprestopped/prestopping.[2][3] In descriptions of the languages of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific,preploded/preplosion is common,[4] thoughprestopped is also used.[5] In accounts of Celtic languages,preoccluded/preocclusion is used almost exclusively.[6][7] 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.[8]
InManx, pre-occlusion occurs in stressed monosyllabic words (i.e. words one syllable long), and is also found inCornish on certain stressed syllables. The inserted stop is homorganic with the sonorant, which means it has the sameplace of articulation. 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[9] and in Cornish.[10]
Examples in Manx include:[11][12]
In Cornish, pre-occlusion mostly affects the reflexes of older geminate/fortis/m/, intrinsically geminated in Old Cornish, and/nn/ (or /N/ depending on preferred notation). It also arises in a few cases where the combination/n+j/ was apparently re-interpreted as/nnʲ/.
Examples inCornish:
InFaroese, pre-occlusion also occurs, as inkallar[ˈkatlaɹ] 'you call, he calls',seinna[ˈsaiːtna] 'latter'. A similar feature occurs inIcelandic, as ingalli[ˈkatlɪ] ('error');sæll[ˈsaitl̥],seinna[ˈseitna];Spánn[ˈspautn̥].
Pre-stopped nasals are also found in several branches ofAustroasiatic, especially in theNorth Aslian languages andShompen, where historical word-final nasals, *m *n *ŋ, have become pre-stopped, or even full voiced stops[bdɡ].
Pre-stopped nasals and laterals are found in someAustralian Aboriginal languages, such asKuyani (Adnyamathanha),Arabana,Wangkangurru,Diyari,Aranda (nasals only), andMartuthunira (laterals only).[13] Adnyamathanha, for example, has the pre-stopped nasals[ᵇm,ᶡɲ,ᵈ̪n̪,ᵈn,𐞋ɳ] and the pre-stopped laterals[ᶡʎ,ᵈ̪l̪,ᵈl,𐞋ɭ], though these are all in allophonic variation with the simple nasals and laterals[m,ɲ,n̪,n,ɳ,ʎ,l̪,l,ɭ].
Hiw of Vanuatu is the onlyAustronesian language that has been reported to have a pre-stoppedvelar lateral approximant/ᶢʟ/.[14] Its phonological behavior clearly defines it as a prestoppedlateral, rather than as alaterally released stop.[14]
Nemi of New Caledonia has consonants that have been described aspostnasalized stops,[15] but could possibly be described as prestopped nasals.[16]