Re: Question about word-initial velar nasal

From: "Tim May"

> Danny Wier wrote at 2004-10-21 14:27:39 (-0500)
> > This is a natlang/histlang/theory question, the answer of which may
> > affect the development of my conlang.
> >
> > I've noticed that a lot of languages that have /N/ in their
> > inventories do not allow it word-initially.
>
> Incidentally, what languages _do_ allow /N/ initally?  Offhand, I can
> only think of Vietnamese and Tibetan, and it's a tricky thing to look
> up.
Some of these have already been mentioned by others, so pardon the
redundancy. These I know for sure:

Albanian, and I have no idea how that happened.
Celtic languages (Breton, Welsh, Irish and Scots Gaelic), but as a result of
nasal mutation of initial velar stops.
Vietnamese
Tagalog and other Philippine languages
Samoyedic languages like Nganasan (as the name implies)

I think Sami (in its various dialects) may allow initial velar nasals, but
I'm not too keen on the language. They do have velar nasals in other
situations, and in fact, they use the letter eng for that purpose. Also
Nivkh (Gilyak) comes to mind; it also distinguishes velar and uvular nasals
(as well as stops and fricatives).

I also want to say Inuktitut too, but I can't remember! I studied this
language a wee bit not too long ago....

Apparently I will never escape my obsession with phonology.

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