Nasalisation progressive en mbochi (C25)

Abstract

Mboshi is a Bantu language from Zone C25 spoken in the Republic of Congo. This study proposes to describe the synchronic vowel system in mbochi before giving a diachronic explanation of the existence of nasal vowels in two of the 10 dialects of this language. In this paper, the author compares the 10 mboshi dialects to 4 others bantu C languages, to show that these vowels result from the fall of the nasal consonant prefix in front of the themes with a vowel initial. Far from disappearing after the fall of the consonant that wore it, the [+nasal] feature gradually spreads to the segments on the right in the item.