UNIVERSAL NASAL ASSIMILATIONS IN MONOMORPHEMIC AND POLYMORPHEMIC WORDS ACROSS LANGUAGES

Abstract

There are universal aspects in language. Phonology, as the most universal languagecomponent, has many universal aspects including nasal assimilation. Nasal assimilation isthe systematic appearance of certain nasals instead of other nasals based on the context in monomorphemic or polymorphemic words. The nasal /n/ occurs successively with alveolarconsonants, the nasal /m/ with labials, the nasal /ɳ/ with velars, and the nasal /ɲ/ withpalatals. Nasal assimilation mostly occurs regressively. Regressively, nasal assimilationtends to occur in monomorphemic and polymorphemic words. In progressive assimilation, ittends to occur in a specific phrase structure. This phenomenon can happen acrosslanguages.