Re: Consonant Harmony?

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:

>Yes.  I believe it's Guaraní, a native american language spoken in Peru
>(?) that has a nasal harmony rule, where all consonants in a word must
>be either nasal or non-nasal [if it is Guaraní, then I suspect that that
>name was applied by another tribe]

I have no idea where the name came from, but yes, Guaraní *
has nasal harmony, to some extent. Many affixes have a nasal
and a non-nasal form, and when a nasal consonant or vowel is
found in some specific places, you have to use the nasal
version. I'm not sure if these applies to roots too, or
how much it spreads, but I've seen an example with two
verb roots, -echa- (non-nasal) and -endu- (nasal).

For -echa- you have a word <jajoechapeve> (with a prefix
jajo- and a suffix -peve, stressed in the ultima). For
-endu- it changes to <ñañoendumeve>.

* The language is not spoken in Perú AFAIK, but masively
in Paraguay (it's the second official language), and quite
usual to find in the north-east of Argentina. Many words
from it have gotten into the local dialect of Spanish,
as well as many place names (Paraguay, Uruguay, Iguazú,
Paraná, and dozens more). Plus 'jaguar', of course. :)


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/draseleq.html