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I am wondering if the same phenomenon occurs in English, as described here in Spanish: https://spanish.stackexchange.com/q/37916/11155.

Q: Why did the Latin coemeterium change into cementerio* in Spanish, where does the n come from?

A: (@Charlie) The origin of that middle -n- is due mostly to a prolongation of the nasalization produced by the previous -m-.

which I understand that once the velum is lowered, it takes some time to return back and the "momentum" influences the pronunciation even of the next vowel.

Is there a phenomenon like this also in English? Can you provide examples?

Honza Zidek
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    I've never heard ‘prolongation of nasalization’ before. I'm not aware of any words in which this phenomenon has happened, although there are a handful of words in which a nasal has been inserted for articulatory reasons, for example, nightingale from nightegale. – Decapitated Soul May 10 '21 at 13:29
  • Most of The articulatory dynamics of pre-velar and pre-nasal /æ/-raising in English goes way over my head. But what I can't help noticing after looking at that linked abstract is that linguists investigating things like this have to rely on *ultrasound imaging* and other technological aids to determine exactly what people are actually saying (the articulatory characteristics they're analysing are so subtle it's simply not practical to just *listen* to the speech). – FumbleFingers May 10 '21 at 14:12
  • @DecapitatedSoul Couldn't nightingale be the case? There is a nasal in the syllable before. – Honza Zidek May 10 '21 at 14:12
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    @FF Speech is too precious to use for communicating. – Edwin Ashworth May 10 '21 at 14:17
  • @FumbleFingers After reading Charlie's answer in the Spanish SE, I tried observing the feelings in my mouth while pronouncing and I realized that it's really more comfortable to keep the velum lowered and not return from the nasal. Like all the possible types assimilation are also a result of the "mouth laziness". – Honza Zidek May 10 '21 at 14:21
  • @HonzaZidek: Probably... I suspect the n in ‘cementerio’ is epenthesised for optimising the syllable structure (as I've explained in the linked answer). The n provides a coda to the previous syllable so that the t can become the onset of the next syllable. – Decapitated Soul May 10 '21 at 14:36
  • I've never heard the phrase "prolongation of nasalization" either, but it does describe a real phenomenon. As noted, it takes time to open and close the velic, and therefore there is a perceptible aura of nasality that surrounds every nasal consonant. Since they normally occur before or after vowels, that usually results in allophonically nasalized vowels. What's interesting is that there are language habits about how to do it. English anticipates nasals by nasalizing the vowel before them; Malay nasalizes the vowel after them. – John Lawler May 10 '21 at 15:42

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