Sequence of Nasal-Stops as a Distinct Segment in Balinese

Abstract

The article entitled “Sequence of Nasal-Stops as A Distinct Segment in Balinese” attempts to investigate wheather Balinese has sequence of nasal stops both bilabial nasal stops (<m-b>, <m-p>), alveolar nasal-stops (<n-d>, <n-t>), and velar nasal-stops (<ng-g>, <ng-k> or it has a prenasal stops both bilabial prenasal stops (<mb>, <mp>), alveolar prenasal stops (<nd>, <nt>) or it has velar prenasal stops (<ngg>, <ngk>). Based upon the data analysis, it has sequence of nasal-stop segments. The judgement is based on (1) the existence of suspicious syllabic nasal phonemes, (2) its clear word structure such as (a) VC.CVC e.g. <aggag> /aggag/ [ag.gag] ‘open’, (b) CVC.CV e.g. <bakta> /bakta/ [bak.ta] ‘bring’, (c) CVC.CVC e.g. <dapdap> /dapdap/ [dap.dap] ‘careful’ and (d) VC.CV e.g. <akta> /akta/ [ak.ta] ’official document’. (3) On the bases of its clear word structure, Balinese shares sequence of nasal-stop segments both bilabial nasal-stop such as <m-b> e.g. <embok> ‘elder sister’ of which the right pronunciation is [ǝm.bɔk] rather than prenasal stop [ᵐb] as in [ᵐbɔk], alveolar nasal-stop such as <n-d> in <cande> ‘just for kidding’ of which the right pronunciation is [can.dǝ] rather than prenasal stop [ⁿd] in [ca.ⁿdǝ] and velar nasal-stop such as <ng-g> in <bengkek> ‘short body posture’ of which the right pronunciation is [bǝŋ.kǝk] rather than velar prenasal [ᵑg] in [bǝ.ᵑkǝk].