The sources of nasal vowels in the “Central” Sara languages

Abstract

“Central” Sara languages (Chad and Central African Republic) are the only ones in their group that include nasal vowels. It has already been shown that this nasal feature could result from the weakening or loss of a neighbouring nasal consonant (ɲ). It is demonstrated here that other consonants had a similar effect, namely a nasalised retroflex lateral approximant (ɭ ̃) as well as a glottal fricative (h) resulting from the historical merging of three voiceless plosives, velar (k), labial (p), and labial-velar (kp).