On latent nasals in Samogo

McPherson, Laura

doi:10.4000/mandenkan.2314

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In fact, in most cases, it is realized as either late nasalization of the preceding vowel (contrastive with phonemically nasal vowels) or as nasalization of a following sonorant. Only in rare instances is it realized fully as a nasal stop; for more details, see McPherson (2020c). The repercussions of this weak phonological element for the balafon surrogate language will be discussed below.…”

Section: Syllable and Word Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only before obstruents is it variably realized as a nasal stop. For more details, see McPherson (2020aMcPherson ( , 2020bMcPherson ( 2020c.…”

Section: Nasal Codasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the variable encoding of diphthongs is shown to be the result of conscious disambiguation on the part of the musician, demonstrating a recognition of the distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs when such a contrast is needed. The variation with nasal codas, on the other hand, is argued to arise from their weak phonological representation in the language itself (McPherson 2020a;McPherson 2020b;McPherson 2020c), with more "complex" encodings correlated with environments in which they surface as true coda consonants, and more "simplex" encodings correlated with environments in which they are subsumed into the following onset or the preceding vowel. Finally, the presence of gradience in the system suggests that surrogate encoding passes through a subconscious "phonetic filter", in which surrogate speech is mediated by the musician's inner voice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Categoricity, Variation, and Gradience in Sambla Balafon Segmental Encoding

McPherson

2021

Front. Commun.

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This paper analyzes the musical surrogate encoding of Seenku (Mande, Burkina Faso) syllable structure on the balafon, a resonator xylophone used by the Sambla ethnicity. The elements of syllable structure that are encoded include vowel length, sesquisyllabicity, diphthongs, and nasal codas. Certain elements, like vowel length and sesquisyllabicity, involve categorical encoding through conscious rules of surrogate speech, while others, like diphthongs and nasal codas, vary between being treated as simple or complex. Beyond these categorical encodings, subtler aspects of rhythmic structure find their way into the speech surrogate through durational differences; these include duration differences from phonemic distinctions like vowel length in addition to subphonemic differences due to phrasal position. I argue that these subconscious durational differences arise from a “phonetic filter”, which mediates between the musician’s inner voice and their non-verbal behavior. Specifically, syllables encoded on the balafon may be timed according to the perceptual center (p-center) of natural spoken rhythm, pointing to a degree of phonetic detail in a musician’s inner speech.

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Section: Syllable and Word Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only before obstruents is it variably realized as a nasal stop. For more details, see McPherson (2020aMcPherson ( , 2020bMcPherson ( 2020c.…”

Section: Nasal Codasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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