Rare, but Real: Native Nasal Clusters in Northern Philippine Languages

Abstract

Abstract:Although Formosan languages provide little support for Proto-Austronesian lexical bases of the shape CVNCVC, reflexes of such forms are common outside Taiwan, except in the northern Philippines, where they are relatively rare. This observation has produced two contrasting positions about the history of medial prenasalization in Austronesian languages. Although his higherorder subgrouping ideas were unclear, Dempwolff allowed medial -NC- in his "Uraustronesisch" (equivalent to modern Proto-Malayo-Polynesian), and a similar practice appears in later work by Blust, where Proto-Malayo-Polynesian was explicitly recognized. In opposing this view, Reid, in works over the past forty years, has claimed that -NC- developed after Northern Philippine languages separated from all other Austronesian languages outside Taiwan, implying that there is no Philippine subgroup. Evidence is presented that many Northern Philippine languages contain native lexical items with -NC-, a conclusion that is consistent with the reduced incidence of such forms in non-Northern Philippine languages such as Tagalog, and with clear evidence of a Philippine branch of the Austronesian family.