Comparing nasal-obstruent clusters derived from /mu-/ reduction in Shangwe and Zezuru: An Optimality Theory analysis

Abstract

This article seeks to: (i) contribute to typology by presenting data illustrating the realisation of nasals in nasal-obstruent clusters (NCs) of Shangwe and Zezuru, two less well-studied Shona dialects; (ii) compare the realisation of nasals in NCs of these two dialects; and (iii) provide a formal analysis of this phenomenon. The focus is on NCs derived from the deletion of /u/ following /m/ in connected speech. The deleted /u/ is always part of the noun class prefix /mu-/. In both dialects, the resultant nasal holds on to the mora of the elided vowel and is syllabic. The main interlinguistic difference is that in Zezuru faithfulness to the input is more important than having clusters with shared place features, whereas in Shangwe homorganicity is ranked above faithfulness. This interlinguistic difference allows for an Optimality Theory (OT) analysis where a factorial typology accounts for the difference.