Nasalization processes in Lung’Ie

Abstract

This study describes and analyzes the vocalic nasality triggered by nasal elements in coda and onset in Lung’Ie, a Portuguese-based Creole spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe. We observed the language’s phonotactic behavior, investigating the occurrence of vocalic nasalization processes according to its segmental and suprasegmental aspects. In this regard, we took into account the lexical stress and the possibility of segmental resyllabification. We designed a perceptual test in order to identify the way by which the coda nasality was perceived by native speakers. Thus, by omitting a consonant in the onset position of the following syllable in relation to the syllable that has nasalization, speakers understood the nasal tail as a full consonant [n]. Nasal consonant in coda was therefore resyllabified into an onset position. This syllabic restructuration is an indication of a biphonemic interpretation of nasality in Lung’Ie (AGOSTINHO, 2015; BALDUINO et al., 2015; BANDEIRA, 2017). The phonotactic analysis indicates lexical stress as an essential factor for the realization of the nasalization process triggered by the onset. Nasalization processes by coda, on the other hand, are possible in stressed and unstressed syllables. The importance of stress in the application of this process supports a mixed suprasegmental system in Lung’Ie constituted by lexical stress and tones, whereas the stress is the main suprasegmental category (AGOSTINHO, 2015), and not a tonal system (MAURER, 2009).