Intervocalic velar nasals in Galician: Phonetic evidence for multiple syllabic affiliation

Abstract

The syllabic affiliation of intervocalic velar nasals in Galician, e.g. unha [una] 'a, one (fem.)' has been a controversial topic amongst scholars for at least three decades. All solutions proposed to date (onset or coda affili­ation) are costly finm a phonological point of view as they run counter to well-attested principles of phonological theory, such as Structure Preserva­tion (Kaisse and Shaw 1985; Kiparksy 1985; Mohanan 1986) and syllabic markedness generalizations (*VC.V). Recently, however, Colina (2004) has proposed an analysis that does not encounter the difficulties of previous ac­counts. Colina (2004) argues for an underlying velar nasal realized as a surface geminate that results from the assimilation of an epenthetic onset to the point of articulation of the preceding nasal. It was hypothesized that the phonetic level could provide additional support for the gemination proposal if there were duration differences between the surface geminate (underlying velar) and other context similar nasals syllabified in either onset or coda position. Hence the fundamental goal of this paper is to examine intervo­calic nasals in forms such as unha, cunha, algunha from a phonetic point of view and determine whether there are differences between these forms and other intervocalic nasals. Ten native speakers of Galician were asked to read carrier phrases containing the target nasals in three different contexts: 1) hypothesized geminale (e.g. unha 'a'), 2) onset position (e.g. c'un amigolo 'with a friend'), and 3) coda position c'un curandeiro 'with a folk healer' (coda). Phonetic analysis of the recordings reveals that there is a phonetic distinction in terms of length between multiply-linked velar nasals (surface geminates) and other intervocalic: velar nasals, thus lending further support to the gemination proposal. The findings have implications for research on the phonology and phonetics of geminates.