Re: USAGE: syllables

Elliott Lash wrote:
(someone wrote:)
> > > Well...actually, there are languages in which a
> > vowel
> > > followed by a nasal consonant can become
> > nasalized.
> > > Take Sundanese:
http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/appe
ndix/languages/sundanaese/sundanese.html
> >
> Hm...it seems like it contradicts Nik. He said "vowels
> preceded by nasals dont get nasalized" but, if I
> follow the chart accurately, that's what they say is
> happening in that language.  Also note, that they
> state the rule quite nicely, down at the bottom, which
> is in opposition to Nik's generalization.
>
> "the language has a rule of nasal spreading whereby a
> sequence of vowels .... become nasalized when
> following a nasal consonant"
>
It happens in closely related Madurese, too; and I've seen detailed phonetic
discussions of Malay/Indonesia where it's also recorded.  Usually the
nasalization blocks at a subsequent stop, so a word like "marah" is totally
nasalized, but "mata" is just ['ma~ta].

IIRC Kager in "Optimality Theory" discusses some S.American native langs.
that do the same or similar.

I suspect many Americans do it too (and in non-nasal environments as well),
perhaps some more noticeably than others.  I sort-of cured myself of the
habit in my teens, as I was teased for my quite nasal accent when I went
East for high-school.