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Words ending in a vowel plus nasal.
Words ending in a vowel plus the nasal consonants £ m and ¨ n change to nasalized vowels, and the nasal segment is deleted.This does not occur with final retroflex ý n; such items have an epenthetic Ë u added (cf. below).Generally, long vowels retain their same quality, but add nasalization. Short vowels may change, e.g. undergo rounding, fronting, or some other phonetic process.
<UL>
<LI> Thus words ending in ǣ am such as
¾À£ maram `tree' are phonetically [m '025
r
];
<LI> Long È aa before £ m retains the low-central quality:
ؽԴÁÔ£ poohalaam `let it go' is phonetically
[po '161
hal
];
<LI> Long Ñ oo before £ m retains the tense mid back
position: Éç¡ÞØÅÔ£ `we are' irukkroom is [ir '124
kr
].
<LI> Long Î ee before ¨ n retains the tense mid front
articulation: Éç¡ÞØŨ irukkreen `I am' is [ir '124
kr
].
<LI> Short Ë u after £ m remains high, back, and rounded:
ؽÔÞ£ poohum `it will go' is [po '161
h
].
<LI> Short Ç a before ¨ n is front in the dialects of many
speakers, to [æ] or [
]: Ǩ avan `he' is
[av æ] or [av].
<LI> short Í e before ¨ n occurs mainly in the item ͨ en `my', where it is pronounced [ ]
<LI> Short Ð o before ¨ n occurs mainly in the item Ш on `your', where it is pronounced [ ]
<LI> There are no occurrences of Ì uu, or of short É i before nasals in final position
</UL>
Harold_F.Schiffman