Chapter 6 Nasal Harmony in Deori
6.3 Nasal harmony pattern in Deori
6.3.2 Nasal harmony pattern in derived word domain
6.3.2.1 Oral-nasal suffixal alternation
Nasal harmony in Deori exhibits the presence of alternating suffix, depending on the preceding vowel they are attached to. The alternating suffix in Deori is referred to as an allophonic variation by Jacquesson (2005). However, our analysis of the data shows that the alternating suffixal consonant /b/ → /m/, [ɹ] → /n/ preceding a nasal vowel is an instance of nasal coalescence. The nasal vowel has a dominant influence on the following suffix which results in an alternation of the suffixal consonants /b/ → /m/ and [ɹ] →/n/. e will first discuss the examples of alternation of obstruent stop /b/ to nasal sonorant stop /m/ in (95) which will be followed by a discussion on the alternation of liquid [ɹ] to nasal sonorant stop /n/ in (96).
(95) Oral and nasal realization (i) after oral vowels
/b/
a. ʧɑ.bɑ → ʧɑbɑ ‘bad.VN’ b. kɔ.bɑ → kɔbɑ ‘come.VN’ c. ɦɑ.bɑ → ɦɑbɑ ‘eat.VN’ d. bɔ.bɑ → bɔbɑ ‘beat.VN’
e. ɦɑ.bɛm79 → ɦɑbɛm ‘eat+PST TRANS’ f. bɔ.bɛm → bɔbɛm ‘beat+PST TRANS’ g. lɛ.bɛm → lɛbɛm ‘give+PST TRANS’ h. li.bɛm → libɛm ‘cut+PST TRANS’ (ii) after nasal vowels
/m/
a. bɔ .ba → bɔ mɑ ‘somewhere.VN’ b. kã.ba → kɑ mɑ ‘hot.VN’s
c. ɦɔ .ba → ɦɔ ɑ mɑ ‘truth.VN’ d. ɦidzɛ .ba → ɦidzɛ mɑ ‘see.VN’
e. n ɑ .bɛm → n ɑ mɛ m ‘cook+PST TRANS’ f. ɦidzɛ .bɛm → ɦidzɛ mɛ m ‘see+PST TRANS’ g. dz .bεm → dz mɛ m ‘pierce+PST TRANS’ h. nɔ .bεm → nɔ mɛ m ‘need+PST TRANS’
In the examples above, it is evident that the verbal-noun suffix -b and -bɛm are realized as b and bɛm after oral roots (95) (i) and changes to m and mɛ m after nasal roots (95) (ii). Cole and Kisseberth state that “an obstruent in a nasal domain can realize the feature [nasal] in two ways:
by combining [nasal, obstruent] and surfacing as a prenasalized stop or by losing the obstruent feature and surfacing as a full nasal stop” 1994, p. 4 . Deori exhibits the latter in which an obstruent stop loses its obstruent feature in the suffixal position and surfaces as a nasal stop in a nasal harmony domain. However, in Deori, while voiced obstruent /b/ loses its obstruent feature in the nasal domain and changes to nasal stop /m/, voiced stops /d/ and /ɡ/ surface as opaque segments.
Identical to the coalescence of /b/ with /m/, coalescence of [+sonorant] liquid [ɹ] with [+sonorant] nasal stop /m/ in a derived domain is evident in the following examples:
79 As mentioned in Chapter 5 (section 5.3.4.1) ε and ɹɔ are past tense marker which gets attached to transitive and intransitive verb respectively. ε and ɔ are the nasal variant of ε and ɹɔ which gets attached to roots with final nasal vowel.
(96) Oral and nasal realization
(i) after oral vowel
[ɹ]
a. ʧuʧɑ.ɹɛ → ʧuʧɑɹɛ ‘good health.FOC’ b. sɑbɑ.ɹɛ → sɑbɑɹɛ ‘illness.FOC’ c. siɡɑ.ɹɛ → siɡɑɹɛ ‘morning.FOC’
d. ɦɑ.ɹɛ → ɦɑɹɛ ‘eat.FOC’
e. ku.ɹɔm → kuɹɔm ‘fall.PST INTR80’ f. sɑ.ɹɔm → sɑɹɔm ‘to become PST INTR’ g. tʃi.ɹɔm → tʃiɹɔm ‘dead PST INTR’
h. jɔ.ɹi → joɹi ‘cut.PROG81’ i. kɔ.ɹi → koɹi ‘go.PROG’ (ii) after nasal vowel
/n/
a. ʧ ɑ .ɹɛ → ʧ ɑ nɛ ‘fish.FOC’ b. n ɑ .ɹɛ → n ɑ nɛ ‘cook.FOC’ c. ʧɔʧε .ɹɛ → ʧɔʧε nɛ ‘shame.FOC’ d. ɦidzɛ .ɹɛ → ɦidzɛ nɛ ‘see.FOC’ e. n ɑ .ɹɔm → n ɑ nɔ m ‘cook.PST INTR’ f. p .ɹɔm → p nɔ m ‘put on. PST INTR’ g. pɔ .ɹɔm → pɔ nɔ m ‘excees. PST INTR’
h. ɦidzɛ .ɹi → ɦidzɛ n ‘see.PROG’ i. n ɑ .ɹi → n ɑ n ‘cook.PROG’
In (96-i) (a-i) suffixes -ɹɛ, -ɹi, and -ɹɔm remain oral following an oral root and in (96-ii) (a-i) suffixes -ɹɛ, -ɹi, and -ɹɔm change to -nɛ , - , and -nɔ m respectively when preceded by a nasal vowel. It is shown in section 6.3.1, example (76) (a-b) and (77 a), that liquid [ɹ] is a target segment in underived words as well; however, in underived domain liquid [ɹ] does not change to a sonorant stop /n/, unlike derived domain. In derived domain, [-continuant +sonorant] [ɹ]
changes to [+continuant +sonorant] /n/ when preceded by a nasal vowel. However, when an opaque segment intervenes between a nasal vowel and liquid [ɹ] the coalescence of liquid [ɹ]
with nasal stop /n/ is impeded as shown in (97) (a-c) below.
80 Intransitive verb
81 Progressive marker
(97) Spreading of nasalization is stopped by an intervening opaque segment /dz/
a. ɦidzɛ .dzi.ɹi → ɦidzɛ dziɹi ‘see.SPA82.PRES PROG’ b. ɡ j .dzi.ɹi → ɡ j dziɹi ‘swim.SPA.PRES PROG’ c. tʃɔ .dzi.ɹi → tʃɔ dziɹi ‘collect.SPA.PRES PROG’
In the examples above, the root final nasal vowel fails to trigger nasalization on the following suffix as it is prevented by [+voice] affricate /dz/ which is opaque to nasal harmony in Deori.
Similarly, in (98) (a-c), spreading of the feature [nasal] is blocked by an intervening causative suffix -p as [-voice] obstruent stop /p/ is opaque to nasal harmony in Deori, and hence the alternation of the progressive marker [ɹi] → /ni/ is hindered.
(98) Spreading of nasalization is stopped by an intervening opaque segment /p/
a. nijɑ .pɑ.ɹi → nijɑ pɑɹi ‘cook.CAU.PROG’ → ‘made to cook’
b. ɦidzɛ .pɑ.ɹi → ɦidzɛ pɑɹi ‘see. CAU.PROG’ → ‘made to see’
c. nɔ .pɑ.ɹi → nɔ pɑɹi ‘do.CAU.PROG’ → ‘made to do’
From the discussion so far it is evident that Deori has a set of alternating suffixes as in (99), a set of coalescence suffixes as in (100) and a set of non-alternating oral suffixes as in (101). The list of alternating, coalescence, and the non-alternating suffixes is presented below.
(99) Alternating suffix Oral Nasal
a. ɦɔ ɦ ɔ ‘Locative suffix’
b. wɑ w ɑ ‘Thematic marker’
c. jɔ jɔ ‘Possessive marker’
(100) Nasal coalescence Oral Nasal
a. bɑ mɑ ‘Verbal noun’
b. bεm mεm ‘Past tense’ with a transitive verb) c. ɹɔm nɔm ‘Past tense’ with an intransitive verb) d. ɹε nε ‘Focus marker’
e. ɹi ni ‘Progressive marker’
(101) Non-alternating suffix
a. pɑ ‘Causative marker’
b. ti ‘Negative’
82 Spatial marker
c. ku ‘Future perfect’
d. du ‘Applicative marker’
e. ɡε ‘Negation incomplete action ’ f. si ‘ elective marker’
g. tʃɑlɛ ‘Ablative marker’
h. dzi ‘ patial marker’
While the alternating suffixes in (99) change their feature specification from [-nasal] to [+nasal]
in nasal harmony domain, the coalescence suffixes in (100) change their feature specification from [+voice -sonorant -nasal] /b/ to [+voice +sonorant +nasal] /m/ and [+voice +sonorant - nasal] [ɹ] to [+voice +sonorant +nasal] /n/ in nasal domain. The non-alternating suffixes in (101) surface as oral irrespective of the root morpheme they are attached to. When a nasal root is followed by a non-alternating suffix and then an alternating suffix the alternating suffix surfaces as oral following the non-alternating suffix. This suggests that non-alternating suffixes are opaque to nasal harmony and blocks the extension of nasal harmony from propagating further.
Although morpheme alternation is attested in languages such as Southern Barasano, Guaraní, and Tuyuca cross-linguistically (discussed in § 6.2.1), morpheme alternation in Deori is different. The similarity in suffixal alternation in languages such as Southern Barasano, Guaraní, and Tuyuca is that there is a clear distinction between voiced and voiceless obstruents, and all the voiced obstruent stops undergo nasalization and are realized as nasal sonorant stop, unlike Deori. In Deori, while voiceless obstruent stops /p,t,k/, [+voiced] alveolar and velar stops /d/ and /ɡ/ are opaque to nasal harmony, [+voice] obstruent stop /b/ undergoes nasalization in derived domain and changes to /m/. This unusual pattern of suffixal alternation in Deori does not conform to the implicational hierarchy shown in (74). To account the compatibility difference between voiced and voiceless segments cross-linguistically, Walker (1998) posits that although the implicational hierarchy shown in (74) is a “good predictor of the likelihood of segments undergoing nasalization, there are some other factors that contribute to the pattern of nasalization” (p. 63). She further posits that the clear distinction of nasalization spreading through [+voice] segments and not through [-voice] segments lead to the cross-linguistic variability in the ranking of [±voice] fricatives and [±voice] stops. It has been well attested in the literature that voiced fricatives are more compatible with nasalization and voiceless stops are less compatible with nasalization based on the continuancy and voicing. Thus, the segregation of the obstruent class of segments according to their continuancy and voicing as in (102) accounts the
nasal harmony pattern in languages such as Southern Barasano and Tuyuca where voiced segments undergo nasalization and voiceless segments surface as transparent segments.
(102) voiced fricatives > voiceless fricatives > voiced stops > voiceless stops (Walker, 1998) Although the hierarchy in (102) shows the segregation between the class of obstruents according to the continuancy and voicing, Deori nasal harmony pattern does not conform to the hierarchy in (102) as well. Considering the nasal harmony pattern in Deori, if voiced obstruent is placed above [±voice] fricative than there will be an infringement of both continuancy and voicing since obstruent stop is less compatible with nasalization than fricative. Furthermore, ranking the voiced obstruent stops above the fricatives would disregard the opacity of [+voice] stops /d/ and /ɡ/ and would consider the [+voice] stops /d/ and /ɡ/ as target segments which is an unattested pattern in Deori. Thus, neither the five-way classification of nasal hierarchy scale shown in (74) nor the nasal hierarchy scale based on continuancy and voicing in (102) predicts the alternation of the suffixal consonants in Deori. Piggott (1992), Rice (1993), and Piggott & Van der Hulst (1997) have postulated that in languages where obstruent stops undergo nasalization and changes to nasal stops, the obstruent stops belong to the set of sonorant segments. Piggot (1992) further suggests that in languages where obstruent segments block nasal spreading they are contrastive phonemes and in languages where obstruent segments undergo nasalization and change to nasal consonant there is no phonemic contrast between the voiced stops and the nasal stops. However, Deori does not comply to these claims as well. In Deori, obstruent stop /b/ and nasal stop /m/ are contrastive phonemes, yet [+voice] obstruent stop /b/ allows spreading through it and changes to nasal consonant /m/ when preceded by a nasal vowel in the derived domain.
Moreover, in Deori, liquid [ɹ] is a target segment both in the derived and underived domain which conforms to the implicational hierarchy in (74), however, there is an exceptional occurrence of liquid [ɹ] as a nasal sonorant /n/ in the derived domain, unlike underived domain.
A similar pattern of /r/ → /n/ alternation is evident in outhern Barasano. The difference between Southern Barasano and Deori is that while in outhern Barasano, the alternation of /r/ → /n/ is across derived and underived words, in Deori the alternation of [ɹ] → /n/ is attested only in the derived domain. In underived domain liquid [ɹ] undergoes nasalization and changes to nasalized liquid [ɹ ]. Hence, implicational hierarchy in (74) which predicts the compatibility of liquid [ɹ]
with nasalization in Deori, it does not predict the exceptional occurrence of [ɹ] →/n/ in the
language. Liquid /l/ is also a target segment in Deori but it does not change to any nasal stop, unlike liquid [ɹ]. Further, [+voice] obstruent stop /b/ and liquid [ɹ] belong to two different place features. While obstruent stop /b/ is bilabial, liquid [ɹ] is alveolar which further refutes any featural similarity to substantiate its coalescence with nasal stops in Deori. Hence, at this point, we do not have any proper explanation that could justify the exclusive alternation of /b/ → /m/
and [ɹ] → /n/ in Deori. It can be conjectured that the exceptional occurrence of alternative suffix in Deori highlights a pattern which cannot be analyzed following the unified typology of nasal harmony.