Nasalization in UMbundu

UMbundu (ûmbundù) is a Bantu language, R.ll in Guthrie's referential classification spoken mainly on thé central plateau (planalto) of Angola. Its centre lies in thé provinces of Huambo and Bié where it is spoken in a relatively uniform way. Greater dialect variation occurs in some border areas, most notably towards thé coast in thé Benguela province. In terms of number of speakers, UMbundu is the single most important language of Angola. The most striking feature of UMbundu phonology is provided by nasalized segments, both vowels and consonants. Nasalized consonants are universally infrequent, and within Bantu I know of no other language having such segments. Nasalized vowels occur in a few North-West Bantu languages, where they are the result of lost Word-final nasals, at least diachronically and maybe also synchronically. The UMbundu case appears in every respect to be much more complex and interesting. Nasal sound patterns in the world's languages have been extensively studied in the context of the search for language universals ever since Ferguson's (1963) "Assumptions about nasals" was presented at the Dobbs Ferry conference in 1961.1 believe that UMbundu has the makings of becoming a notorious language in this field, on a par with French, Akan, and Guarani. It provides unusual data on all aspects of nasals and nasalization: phonetic, phonological, and diachronic. These facts cannot be gathered from the existing descriptions of UMbundu which contain no more than scattered allusions to some of the nasalized segments. A recent publication which is concerned mainly with spelling suggestions for Angolan languages provides a good start for an inventory of nasalization in UMbundu but the conclusions reached are largely unfounded and even self-contradictory (Institute Nacional de Lmguas 1980).