Abstract:

The consonant systems of Australian Aboriginal languages are very similar to one another but very different from those of most other languages of the world. They have unusually few contrasts in manner of articulation and an unusually large number of places of articulation. Previous research has shown that speakers appear to employ a number of strategies to preserve place of articulation distinctions, particularly in intervocalic (coda) consonants. One such strategy is that in vowel + nasal sequences speakers avoid lowering the velum until the latest possible instant, presumably to preserve spectral clarity at the VC boundary. This often results in a brief homorganic oral stop occurring before the nasal. Phonetically prestopped nasals occur in a large number of languages across Australia and have become distinctive phonemes in a number of languages in the center and south. Less well documented is the parallel phenomenon of prestopped laterals, which is taken to be the outcome of a similar coarticulation avoidance strategy. This paper describes the wide distribution and distinctive phonetic characteristics of prestopped nasals and laterals in a number of Australian languages and proposes that both strategies are aimed at the enhancement of the left edge of the sonorant consonant.