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Prenasalized consonants arephonetic sequences of anasal and anobstruent (or occasionally a non-nasalsonorant) that behavephonologically like singleconsonants.When unambiguous, prenasalized consonants may simply be transcribed e.g. ⟨mb⟩. In the IPA, a tie bar may be used to specify that these are single segments, as in ⟨m͡b⟩ or ⟨m͜b⟩. Another common transcription practice is to make the nasal superscript: ⟨ᵐb⟩. An old convention of the IPA was to mark the nasal as 'short' until the short and the nonsyllabic signs diverged, as in ⟨m̆b⟩.[1]
The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rather than clusters as in Englishfinger ormember, lies in their behaviour; however, there may also be phonetic correlates which distinguish prenasalized consonants from clusters. Because of the additional difficulty in both articulation and timing, prenasalized fricatives and sonorants are not as common as prenasalized stops or affricates, and the presence of the former implies the latter.[2] Only three languages (Sinhala,Fula,Selayarese) have been reported to have acontrast between prenasalized consonants (NC) and their corresponding clusters (NC).[3][4]
In most languages, when a prenasalized consonant is described as "voiceless", it is only the oral portion that is voiceless, and the nasal portion is modallyvoiced. Thus, a language may have "voiced"[ᵐbⁿdᶯɖᶮɟᵑɡᶰɢ] and "voiceless"[ᵐpⁿtᶯʈᶮcᵑkᶰq]. However, in someSouthern Min (includingTaiwanese) dialects, voiced consonants are preceded by voiceless prenasalization:[ᵐ̥bⁿ̥dⁿ̥ɺᵑ̊ɡ].[5]Yeyi has prenasalizedejectives and clicks like/ⁿtsʼ,ᵑkʼ,ᵑᵏ!ʰ,ᵑᶢ!/.[6]Nizaa has prenasalized implosives like /ᵐɓ, ⁿɗʷ/.Adzera has a/ⁿʔ/.[7]
Prenasalized stops may be distinguished frompost-oralized orpost-stopped nasals (orally released nasals), such as the[mᵇnᵈɲᶡŋᶢ] ofAcehnese and similar sounds (including voiceless[mᵖ]) in many dialects of Chinese.[8] (At least in the Chinese case, nasalization, in some dialects, continues in a reduced degree to the vowel, indicating that the consonant is partiallydenasalized, rather than actually having an oral release.) No language is believed to contrast the two types of consonant, which are distinguished primarily by a difference in timing (a brief nasal followed by longer stop, as opposed to a longer nasal followed by brief stop).[9]
TheBantu languages are famous for their prenasalized stops (the "nt" in "Bantu" is an example), but similar sounds occur across Africa and around the world.Ghana's politicianKwame Nkrumah had a prenasalized stop in his name, as does the capital ofChad,N'Djamena (African prenasalized stops are often written withapostrophes in Latin script transcription although this may sometimes indicatesyllabic nasals instead). The sound[ŋ͡mg͡b] can also be found in approximately 90 languages in Africa.[10]
InSouthern Min languages, such asTeochew, prenasalized stops are also found. The prenasalized stops in the vernacular readings of Southern Min languages evolved not from the differentMiddle Chinese initials and thus are historically different from the voiced obstruents found inWu andXiang languages.[11][12][13]
Prenasalized consonants are widely utilized in theLoloish languages of theLolo–Burmese family, such asYi andNaxi. The following table illustrates the prenasalized consonants in northern Yi.
| Yi Character | OfficialPinyin | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ꂃ | nbo | [ᵐbo˧] | skirt |
| ꅝ | ndo | [ⁿdo˧] | drink |
| ꈾ | mge | [ᵑɡɤ˧] | buckwheat |
| ꌅ | nzy | [ⁿd͡zz̩˧] | control |
| ꎧ | nry | [ⁿɖ͡ʐʐ̩˧] | wine,liquor |
| ꐳ | nji | [ⁿd͡ʑʑ̩˧] | quick, fast |
The prenasalized stops also occur in several branches of theHmong–Mien language family of Southern China and Southeast Asia.
In dialects of northernJapan, standard voiced stops are prenasalized, and voiceless stops are voiced. For example,/itiɡo/ "strawberry" is[it̠͡ɕiɡo] in most of the south, but[id̠͡ʑɨᵑɡo] in much of the north. Prenasalized stops are also reconstructed forOld Japanese.
InGreek andTsakonian the orthographic sequences μπ, ντ γκ and γγ are often pronounced as prenasalized voiced stops[ᵐb],[ⁿd], and[ᵑɡ], respectively, especially in formal speech and among older speakers. Among younger Athenian speakers the prenasalization often disappears and in fast speech the voiced stop may be replaced by a fricative.[14][15]
TheGuarani language has a set of prenasalized stops which are alternate allophonically with simple nasal continuants; they appear within or at the beginning of a word, to the left of a stressed vowel that is oral.
TheIndo-Aryan languagesSinhala andDhivehi have prenasalized stops.Sinhala script has prenasalized versions of/g/, /ʥ/,/ɖ/,/d̪/ and/b/. Sinhala is one of only three languages reported to have acontrast between prenasalized consonants and their corresponding clusters, along withFula andSelayarese, although the nature of this contrast is debated.[3][4] For example,
| Sinhala script | IPA | ISO 15919 | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| කද | [ka.d̪ə] | kada | shoulder pole |
| කන | [ka.nə] | kana | ear |
| කඳ | [ka.ⁿd̪ə] | kan̆da | trunk |
| කන්ද | [kan̪.d̪ə] | kanda | hill |
Sri Lankan Malay has been in contact with Sinhala a long time and has also developed prenasalized stops. The spectrograms on the right show the wordgambar with a prenasalized stop and the wordsambal with a sequence of nasal+voiced stop, yet not prenasalized. The difference in the length of the [m] part is clearly visible. The nasal in the prenasalized word is much shorter than the nasal in the other word.
This phonetic information is complemented by phonological evidence: The first vowel in gaambar is lengthened, which only happens in open syllables in Sri Lanka Malay. Thesyllabification of gambar must be ga.mbar then, and the syllabification of sambal sam.bal.
An example of the unitary behavior of prenasalized stops is provided byFijian. In this language, as in many inMelanesia and also reconstructed forProto-Oceanic, there is a series ofvoiceless stops,[p,t,k], and a series of prenasalized stops,[ᵐb,ⁿd,ᵑɡ], but there are no simplevoiced stops,[b,d,ɡ]. In addition, Fijian allows prenasalized stops at the beginning of a word, but it does not allow other consonant sequences. Thus the prenasalized stops behave like ordinary consonants. In someOceanic languages, prenasalisation of voiced consonants depends on the environment. For example, inRaga, b and d are prenasalized when the preceding consonant is nasal (noⁿda "ours"), but not elsewhere (gida "us").Uneapa has prenasalization word-medially, but not word-initially (goᵐbu "yam").
WhenTok Pisin is spoken by people inPapua New Guinea who have similar phonologies in their languages, voiced consonants are prenasalized. For example, the prepositionbilong (from Englishbelong) is pronounced[ᵐbiloŋ] by manyMelanesians. The prenasalization behaves as a phonetic detail of voicing, rather than a separate segment.
Prenasalized stops are also found in Australia. TheEastern Arrernte language has both prenasalized stops andprestopped nasals, but does not have any other word-initialconsonant clusters. Compare[mʷarə] "good",[ᵐpʷaɻə] "make",[ᵖmʷaɻə] "coolamon".