The Phonetics of Nasal‐fricative Sequences in Latin

Abstract

Inscriptional material and descriptions by grammarians from the classical period indicate that vowels were regularly lengthened before -ns-and -nf-sequences in Latin, e.g., c onsul andīnfēlīx. Additionally, nasals were often lost in this environment. The nasal deletion was driven by articulatory mechanisms, namely the difficulty of articulating a nasal directly before an anterior fricative. Diverting air to the nasal cavity reduces oral air pressure; however, the articulation of fricatives requires high air pressure at the point of constriction in order for frication of the air stream to occur. Speakers of Latin reduced the articulatory burden of these sequences by reducing nasal air flow, and over time the nasals were deleted. Preceding vowels were then lengthened to compensate for the lost mora associated with the deleted nasal. The articulatory explanation for the development of nasal-fricative sequences will be supported by the facts of sociolinguistics: the reintroduction of nasals in -ns-and -nf-sequences is associated with elite speech and formal contexts, where the coarticulation between these two segments can be closely monitored by speakers.