Nasal Harmony

Oxford University Press eBooks, pp. 37–48

Abstract

Abstract This chapter is concerned with nasal harmony, the cover term for processes involving long-distance assimilation of nasality. Nasal harmony is similar to vowel harmony in several respects. Languages may differ in the domain, the direction and the trigger of nasal harmony, and in the behavior of sounds that do not participate in the harmony; like vowel harmony, nasal harmony may involve opaque segments (which block nasalization) and transparent segments (which are skipped by nasalization). The focus of the chapter is on cross-linguistic variation in nasal harmony patterns, especially with regard to the nasalizability of segments and the issue of segmental transparency.

Authors 1

1. Bert Botma corresponding Aachen Linguistics

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Linguistics, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, The Netherlands