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The sound change of oralization in Mewahang

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2022

Pascal Gerber
Pascal Gerber*
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Philosophisch-historische Fakultät, Bern, Switzerland
*
pascal.gerber@unibe.ch
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Abstract

This paper discusses the sound change of oralization in the Mewahang language (Eastern Kiranti, Trans-Himalayan/Sino-Tibetan) spoken in eastern Nepal. The sound change of oralization turned syllable-final nasals into homorganic oral stops when followed by voiceless obstruents. This sound change constitutes a diagnostic innovation of Mewahang with regard to its closest relatives Lohorung and Yamphu. In this paper, the process of oralization in both compounding as well as derivational and inflectional morphology is described and illustrated with primary data collected in fieldwork. The explanatory potential of the sound change for synchronic peculiarities in the verbal morphology and morphophonology is discussed, and an overview of exceptions to the sound change is provided.

Keywords

MewahangPhonologyUpper ArunKirantiTrans-HimalayanHistorical linguistics
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , October 2022 , pp. 445 - 473
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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