Prenasalised Consonants in Liangmai

This paper discusses the prenasalized consonants found in Liangmai (ISO 639-3), a Tibeto-Burman language with 49,800 speakers located in Manipur and Nagaland in Northeast India. The occurrence of prenasalized consonants is prevalent in Liangmai, appearing with every consonantal phoneme within the language. This study provides an acoustic analysis of the phonetic realization of two consonants in Liangmai, which are orthographically represented as nthiu ‘boil’, nkan ‘jungle’, and nphia ‘broom’, among others. These consonants are always articulatorily homorganic with the oral period and are often notably brief, creating the impression of a single segment. The paper aims to revisit the topic of prenasals, which has sparked controversy due to the presence of two opposing perspectives. One perspective posits that prenasals constitute a single phoneme, while the other argues that they function as a single syllable. It is important to note that the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not mention any prenasalized consonants.