This dissertation investigates how the Atchan language maintains significant nasal processes despite lacking phonemic nasal consonant contrasts. Russell argues that Atchan utilizes prosodic, syllable-level nasality to enhance sonority contrasts, a claim supported by both comparative linguistics and articulatory measurements.
* Nasality in Atchan is driven by lexical syllable specification, carryover across syllable boundaries, and the docking of floating morphological features.
* The study utilizes empirical data, including spectral information and airflow measurements, to support its descriptive findings.
* The research contributes to linguistic typology by demonstrating how nasality can function as a prosodic rather than a segmental feature.
* Nasality in Atchan is driven by lexical syllable specification, carryover across syllable boundaries, and the docking of floating morphological features.
* The study utilizes empirical data, including spectral information and airflow measurements, to support its descriptive findings.
* The research contributes to linguistic typology by demonstrating how nasality can function as a prosodic rather than a segmental feature.
