The Phonology of Nasal Vowel Development: The Case of West Central Kashubian
The Phonology of Nasal Vowel Development: The Case of West Central Kashubian

Summary/Abstract: The present article analyses the development and the contemporary reflexes of the old nasal vowels in the Kashubian dialect of Sierakowice and Gowidlino from the phonological point of view. A split of */ã, õ/ into sequences /Vŋ/ is assumed as a starting point and rules based on the nasal place and nasal manner agreement are considered a driving force of the entire further phonetic and phonological development. The proposed synchronic model includes a phoneme /ŋ/ which can be realised as [ŋ], [m] or null. Word-internally the choice is between null and [ŋ] depending on the following consonant (velar plosives vs. all other consonants) and word-finally the variants are [m] and null depending on the preceding vowel (null after /a/, null or [m] after /u/). Finally, alternative / previous approaches and interpretations are discussed.

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