Nasality triggered by /ɲ/ in two portuguese varieties of Sao Tome and Principe

Abstract

This study describes and analyzes the nasality triggered by /ɲ/ in the Portuguese spoken in São Tomé (PST) and in the Portuguese spoken in Príncipe (PP). PST and PP are Portuguese varieties from São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) that present particular linguistic characteristics. Considering the context of linguistic contact into which PST and PP are inserted, we aim to (i) propose a phonological analysis of nasality triggered by /ɲ/ in PST and PP, and (ii) investigate the presence of ambisyllabic structures. Based on Autosegmental Phonology (Goldsmith 1976; 1990) as the phonological theory and laboratory phonology (Ohala, 1995) as the methodology and considering the phonotactic analysis of vowels, we observed that nasality can be triggered by /ɲ/, a nasal consonant that occupies an ambisyllabic structure. Thus, the palatal nasal nasalizes left contiguous vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables. This nasalization process is possible because /ɲ/ is in coda, resulting in a CVN syllable structure and triggering tautosyllabic nasality. Even though it is optional, the nasality triggered by /ɲ/ occurs independently of the vowel quality and the word stress, as described for BP (Wetzels, 1997).