Re: Phonotactics of Velian I, or: Phonology of Velian II: The Wrath of John Vertical ;-)

Quoting R A Brown <ray@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
> > Quoting Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...>:
> >
> >
> >>I always thought that Bantu languages had syllabic nasals, but Wikipedia
> >>always seems to nasal + plosive as instances of prenasalisation.
> >
> >
> > Xhosa has words like _mntu_ (meaning "human" I think), and while I don't
> know
> > exactly how that is pronounced,
>
> Actually it's _umntu_ (plural: abantu). The word is two syllables (three
> syllables in the plural, of course): um-ntu. The _nt_ is prenasalized
> dental plosive.
Hm. Googling for "mntu" I find Xhosa texts* containing it ... but apparently
only following words ending in a vowel. Elision?

* examples:
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SouAfrVc/SouAfrVc-idx?type=HTML&rgn=DIV1&byte=83425
http://www.jesus.org.uk/cgi-bin/bible/bible.cgi?BIBLE=Xhosa&BOOK=40&CHAP=26&VERSE=&FIRST=OK&SUBMIT=Read&CASE=ON&HILITE=&R1=I

                                   Andreas

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