Domains and Prominence in Nasal Harmonization of Maxakalí Loanwords

Abstract

In the literature on loanword phonology, there is a longstanding debate as to whether the adaptation from the source language is based on phonetic similarity from language-to-language or mediated by underlying representations (e.g. Silverman 1992, Kenstowicz 2003, Peperkamp and Dupoux 2003, LaCharité and Paradis 2005. As originally pointed out in Wetzels ( 2009), nasality in Maxakalí, a Macro-Jê language spoken in Minas Gerais, Brazil, turns out to be an important test case in this debate, as there is a strong effect of constraints banning a mismatch in nasality between consonant and vowel, e.g. *[dã] and *[ma], potentially affecting the adaptation of numerous loanwords. For instance, in order to incorporate a Brazilian Portuguese (BP) loanword like martelo [mahˈtɛlʊ]'hammer' into the language, the first syllable must be turned

Prominence Augmentation via Nasalization in Brazilian Portuguese

“…Before proceeding, we wish to include here some novel data from a study of Brazilian Portuguese loanwords as adapted into Maxakalí, an indigenous Macro-Jê language spoken in Minas Gerais, Brazil, as reported in Silva et al (2019).…”

Consonant co-occurrence classes and the feature-economy principle

“… 12 A revised account of the Maxakalí segment inventory is given in Silva (2020); cf. the short overview in English in Silva et al (2020). …”