Unmarkedness of the coronal nasal in Alemannic

Abstract

In Alemannic dialects of German, [n] is particularly vulnerable to assimilation, deletion, and epenthesis. Although these changes are not necessarily uniform across all Alemannic varieties, the Alemannic dialect areas all exhibit some, if not all, of these processes. In this article, we present data from a diverse array of Alemannic dialects and show that [n] behaves similarly throughout Alemannic, assimilating to the place of following stops, deleting word-finally, and repairing hiatus through epenthesis. We contend that coronal [n] is interacting with so many processes because it is unmarked in terms of place and manner. This paper contributes to the phonological literature on dialectology and Markedness Theory. First, by considering similar processes which occur across multiple Alemannic dialects, we show how Alemannic prefers eliminating or modifying word-final [n]. Second, this analysis gives insight into theories of segment (un)markedness; thus, the data presented in this paper support descriptions of unmarked segments as undergoing assimilation, deletion, and epenthesis, while they challenge markedness accounts by scholars who bar [n] as an epenthetic segment. Third, we provide data for a language family in which one segment undergoes all three processes of assimilation, deletion, and epenthesis; this is unprecedented in the literature on unmarked segments, which typically focuses on languages which possess only one of these three processes.