In European Languages
In Manx, pre-occlusion occurs in stressed monosyllabic words (i.e. words one syllable long), and is also found in Cornish on certain stressed syllables. The inserted stop is homorganic with the sonorant, which means it has the same place of articulation. Long vowels are often shortened before pre-occluded sounds. In transcription, pre-occluding consonants in final position are typically written with a superscripted letter in Manx and in Cornish.
Examples in Manx include:
- /m/ → : trome /t̪roːm/ → "heavy"
- /l/ → : shooyll /ʃuːl/ → "walking"
- /n/ → : kione /kʲoːn/ → "head"
- /nʲ/ → : ein /eːnʲ/ → "birds"
- /ŋ/ → : lhong /luŋ/ → "ship"
In Cornish, pre-occlusion mostly affects the reflexes of older geminate/fortis /m/, intrinsically geminated in Old Cornish, and /nn/ (or /N/ depending on preferred notation). It also arises in a few cases where the combination /n+j/ was apparently re-interpreted as /nnʲ/.
Examples in Cornish:
- /m#/ → : mabm "mother"
- /VmV/ → : hebma "this"
- /nn#/ → : pedn "head"
- /VnnV/ → : pednow "heads"
In Faroese, pre-occlusion also occurs, as in kallar 'you call, he calls', seinna 'latter'. A similar feature occurs in Icelandic, where the pre-occluding consonant is voiceless, as in galli ('error'); sæll, seinna ; Spánn .
Read more about this topic: Prestopped Consonant
Famous quotes containing the words european and/or languages:
“Americans want action for their money. They are fascinated by its self-reproducing qualities if it’s put to work.... Gold-hoarding goes against the American grain; it fits in better with European pessimism than with America’s traditional optimism.”
—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)
“It is time for dead languages to be quiet.”
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972)