On the non-phonemic status of the velar nasal /ŋ/ in Jivaroan

Abstract

The modern Jivaroan languages and the reconstructed proto language have all been assigned a velar nasal phoneme /ŋ/ by previous analysts. In this paper I argue that such an analysis is incorrect, and propose that the velar nasals in surface forms come from two sources. The first is assimilation of an underlying unspecified syllable-final nasal archiphoneme /N/ to a following velar stop /k/. The second concerns a group of velar nasals that surface only in Aguaruna and arise as a syllable-final allophone of the phoneme /h/. I also propose to reconstruct a rhotic phoneme for the proto language rather than a velar nasal, and show that it has merged with /h/ in Aguaruna. Historical, comparative and documentary evidence is adduced to support these hypotheses.