malayalam phonology presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Alternation of Nasals
in Malayalam
By Christine Esche
Background Information
1 of the 4 living Dravidian languages of India. The language of the state of Kerala The mother tongue of over 35 million people around the world
Evolved into a distinct language by 825 AD from Tamil’s colloquial dialect, largely by assimilating a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary and sound structure
It has 52 letters, the most of any written Indian orthography.
A“Phonologist’s Paradise”
“[Malayalam] has successfully combined a very conservative Dravidian six-stop phonology with a conservative Sanskrit phonology; adding voicing, aspiration, and a complete set of Sanskritic sibilants…It has a near world-maximum contrast in nasals…, six contrasting stop positions in deep phonology…to which two more are added in surface phonology.” (p. 401)
McAlpin (1998)
Consonant Inventory
Malayalam, as you saw from the earlier quote and UCLA site, is famous for having a 6-way contrast of nasals.
Mohanen (1989) and Asher (2013) wonder if there is really a contrast between all 6. The nasals in Malayalam in fact are quite underspecified and experience a lot of alternation depending on the neighboring environment. What follows is an investigation into how nasals alter and are altered by the phonological environment and what that can tell us about nasal contrast in Malayalam.
Nasals sound files
Let’s find out if both alveolar [n] and dental [n̪] exist in the UR. This will take several steps.
First, here is the distribution:
[anu[n̪aasikam]] “nasal sound”
[[gi:ha][n̪aayakan]] “house leader”
[n̪eŋŋa] “chest”
[kinna] “dream”
[en̪n̪ə] “when”
[en̪d̪ə] “what”
[ɲaan] “I”
It seems that [n̪] can occur morpheme initially, as an intervocalic geminate, and before a
dental stop. [n] can occur morpheme finally, and as an intervocalic geminate, and
intervocalically. Except as geminates, they are in complimentary distribution.
[n] vs [n̪]
Even a Beginning Malayalam Student Will Notice Alternations
“Thank you” is written as ന = /na/ ന്ദ = /nd/
= /i/
but pronounced as [nanni] Nandi Example Note: The same word in Tamil, the closest related language to Malayalam, simply says “nandi”
/bhamgi/ > [bhaŋŋi] “beauty”
/cand̪anam/ > [can̪n̪anam] “sandalwood”
/maŋga/ > [maŋŋa] “mango” (loan word)
/[sam][giitam]/ > [saŋgiitam] “music”
/baalan/+ /pooyi/ > [baalampooyi] “the boy went”
/avan/+/ t̪anne/ > [avan̪t̪anne] “he himself”
/[pen][kuʈʈi]/ > [peŋkuʈʈi] “girl”
We can see at least two rules happening here:
1. Nasal spreading to voiced plosives (lexically)
2. Nasal place assimilation before plosives (lexically and post-lexically)
Which comes first?
More Examples
Rule Ordering
Nasal Spread 1st
UR: /bhamgi/
Nasal spread: [bhamŋi]
Nasal place assimilation:
[bhaŋŋi]
SURFACE TRUE
Nasal Spread 1st
UR: /[sam][giitam]/
Nasal spread: [samŋiitam]
Nasal place assimilation:
[saŋŋiitam]*
*NOT SURFACE TRUE
Nasal Spread 1st
UR: /[pen][kuʈʈi]/
Nasal spread: [penkuʈʈi]
Nasal place assimilation:
[peŋkuʈʈi]
SURFACE TRUE
Place assimilation 1st
UR: /bhamgi/
Place assimilation:
[bhaŋgi]
Nasal spread:
[bhaŋŋi]
SURFACE TRUE
Place assimilation 1st
UR: /samgiitam/
Place assimilation:
[saŋgiitam]
Nasal spread:
[saŋŋiitam]
SURFACE TRUE
Place assimilation 1st
UR: /[pen][kuʈʈi]/
Place assimilation:
[peŋkuʈʈi]
Nasal spread:
[peŋkuʈʈi]
SURFACE TRUE
Correct order
Rule Ordering
So?
Since [ +nasal] > [αplace] / ___ [αplace –cont –son] (nasal place assimilation rule),
the UR of the word [pan̪n̪i] (“pig”) will have an UR of /paNd̪i/, where N is a nasal
unspecified for place of articulation. The, nasal assimilates to the dental place of
articulation and the dental [d] becomes nasal through nasal spreading.
Similarly, the UR for /maŋŋa/ will be /maNga. The nasal takes on the palatal
place of articulation and then the /g/ becomes [ŋ].
So, the distribution of alveolar and dental [n] is predictable. The geminates
[kanni] “a month” and [pan̪n̪i] “pig” do not actually demonstrate overlapping
distribution. [n̪] is an allophone of /n/.
[anu[n̪aasikam]] “nasal sound”
[[gi:ha][n̪aayakan]] “house leader”
[n̪eŋŋa] “chest”
[kinna] “dream”
[en̪n̪ə] “when”
[en̪d̪ə] “what”
[ɲaan] “I”
Gap in the Theory
How did that [d̪] escape the nasal spread?
It turns out it didn’t “escape,” rather its underlying form is voiceless, making
it ineligible for the nasal spreading rule.
*NC ̥
Languages tend to disfavor nasal + voiceless obstruent clusters (Kager, 1999). Many
languages, including Malayalam, have strategies to avoid this marked sequence.
POST-NASAL VOICING
/cem/ + /koɖi/ > [ceŋgoɖi] “red flag”
/t̪een/ + /kuppi/ > [t̪eeŋguppi] “honey bottle”
/puum/ + /poɖi/ > [puumboɖi] “pollen” (beautiful dust)
NASAL GEMINATION
Plurals of nouns with N coda: /paɽam/ (“fruit”) + /kkaɭ/ (plural morpheme) > [paɽaŋŋaɭ]
Words with Sanskrit origins: /jan̪t̪u/ > /[jen̪d̪u] “animal”
Scholars’ Conclusion
In a similar fashion to how we just found the UR for alveolar and dental nasals, scholars have investigated all the nasals and concluded that Malayalam only has three underlying nasals:
/m, n, ɳ/
The rest are all predictable!
