PHONETIC CONDITIONING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NASALIZATION IN TEKE 1

Abstract

Diachronic generalizations concerning vowel nasalization have been made on the basis of very restricted data. The development of nasalized vowels is a current on-going process in Teke languages. Comparative data from three different languages of this group allow better understanding of the interaction of the various phonetic factors at work (e.g. vowel quality and length, place of articulation of nasal consonants, etc.)