FORMATION OF MA- AND PA- ALLOMORPH: THE CASE OF SONORANT SEGMENTS’ CLUSTERING

Abstract

The maN- and paN- are some affixes in Banjarese language that manifest the occurrence of homorganic nasal assimilation when forming allomorphs. But in some allomorphs, such as ma- and pa-, the nasal segment was completely deleted from the affixes. This study aims to provide a rational explanation for the deletion of the nasal segment in both allomorphs. A set of base words was retrieved from a dictionary, and respondents were chosen to recite each word as well as the derived word after it received the affixes. The ma- and pa- were formed as a result of each prefix being followed by a sonorant segment, both consonant and vowel. This is different from the Malay language, which only allows nasal segments to be deleted when a sonorant consonant follows them. This study is hoped to add some value to the previous studies as well as become a pioneer for upcoming studies.

Keywords

• Banjarese affix
• nasal segment
• nasal deletion
• sonorant feature
• clustering