A contrastive place of articulation between palatals and velars: An ultrasound study of Malayalam palatal-velar nasals

Abstract

Malayalam (Dravidian) has been described as having seven contrastive nasal places of articulation: labial, dental, alveolar, retroflex, palatal, velar, and a “seventh nasal,” sometimes called palatal-velar /ŋj/ (Asher & Kumari 1997; Namboodiripad & Garellek 2017). Nasal inventories of this size are cross-linguistically rare, and the palatal-velar nasal has only been proposed in a handful of languages worldwide (e.g., Irish, Yanyuwa, and Awngi). Indeed, its status in Malayalam could be deemed peripheral; it is infrequent and occurs in limited phonological contexts. Namboodiripad & Garellek (2017) claim that, though several consonants undergo palatalization in Malayalam, this palatal-velar nasal is dynamically stable and not post-palatalized. Although it is distinct in format transitions from the non-palatalized velar nasal, the articulatory basis for the distinction between this palatal-velar nasal and a velar-glide cluster is not clear. The present study uses ultrasound imaging to determine if this seventh nasal is in fact dynamically stable. Ultrasound data were collected from one native speaker of Malayalam; the placement and timing of lingual contact with the palate were examined. Discussion will focus on how the palatal-velar differs in terms of place and timing of articulations from both palatal and velar nasals, as well as from other palatalized consonants.

Analysis on Application Field of Ultrasonic Imaging Technique in Linguistic Study

“…Boyce et al [32] have the comparative study of rhotic accent or rolling tongues phenomena and describe the pharyngeal contraction. Bouavichith et al [33] have a comparative study on the nasal sound produced by velar and palatal in Malayalam language.…”