Manual
web database NasDat
Last update:8 July
2009.
1. Technical requirements
2. Querying the database
3. Language details
1.
Technical requirements
Minimal
configuration
The NasDat website can be viewed with most recent browsers, such as
Firefox 2+, Safari 2+, Opera 9+ or Internet Explorer 6+ and others.
Please note the following minimal requirements:
- The browser must be css- and javascript-compliant, and
javascript must be enabled:
JavaScript options are controlled in your browser security settings,
which vary depending on which browser you use. Outlined below is where
to go to turn JavaScript on in the most common browsers:
- Mozilla Firefox: menu Tools / Options / Content >
tick "Enable JavaScript"
- Internet Explorer: menu Tools / Internet Options /
Security / Internet zone / Custom Level > click "Enable" under
Active Scripting
- The browser must be Unicode-compliant.
- In order to be able to read the phonetic text, you must
have installed a Unicode font that includes the IPA symbols, such as
Charis SIL, Doulos SIL, Arial Unicode MS, Lucida Sans Unicode (the
latter two are already available in most Windows systems). Some systems
include versions of the fonts Arial, Helvetica and sans-serif, which
can display many IPA symbols, but we are not sure all IPA segments are
readable in them.
Recommended
configuration
For best results, we recommend using Firefox 3 (or later) and
installing the font Charis SIL, which can be downloaded from
http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=CharisSIL_download
(See also http://clas.mq.edu.au/speech/phon_help/phonetic_fonts/ipa_and_browsers.html
for a comment on using IE for displaying IPA)
Index
2. Querying the
database
At the moment, the database contains only one record for
demonstration purposes. At a later stage, when more language
descriptions are added, a system will be available to browse and to
query the data. To view the data for one specific language, click on
the name of this particular language in the overview.
Index
3. Language
details
The data available for each language are presented on a number
of tab pages. You can select a specific tab page by clicking on the tab
in question. You can scroll through the tab pages by means of the up
and down arrows beneath the tab 'Sources'. The following
paragraphs provide information about the contents of (most of) the
individual fields on each tab page.
N.B. This chapter is based on W. Leo
Wetzels & Rob Goedemans (2009), NASDAT, an Electronic Database
for
the Storage of the Parameters of Nasal Harmony. Amerinda (32),
322-344.
Index
3.1. Tab page
Language info
Language:
Name of the language. Only one name is permissable in this field
– please enter the most common name that is used for the
language and enter possible alternative name in the following field.
Alternative names:
Alternative names of the language (if relevant), separated
by a semi-colon.
Dialect of:
Sometimes differences between speech communities are small but
significant, in which case one speaks of dialects of a single language.
If the language being described is considered a dialect of a larger
group, the name of the dialect is listed above under
‘language’ and the group (parent language)
name is listed here. If there is no name for the specific
dialect, the name
of the village, town, or region where the dialect is spoken, is given.
People:
Name of the people that speaks the language. If the people are referred
to by several names in
the literature, multiple names are given.
Genetic Affiliation:
Here, it is noted whether the language is a linguistic isolate,
or information regarding its linguistic affiliation (group (in
case of a
dialect), family, phylum) is provided.
Region:
More detailed geographical information, at least including the name of
the region in which the language is spoken, end with the country name.
Spelling of country names conform to English, i.e. Brazil, not
Brasil; Italy, not Italia, etc.
Latitude and Longitude:
Latitude and longitude of the (centre of) the region where the
language is spoken.
Number of speakers:
The (estimated) number of speakers, and, if available, the
date of the source’s count.
Quote:
This field may contain a direct quote from the main primary source
describing the Nasal
Harmony pattern.
Index
3.2. Tab page
Syllables
On this tab page, information about the syllable structure of the
language is provided.
Syllable types:
This is basically a summation of the syllable structures possible in
the language given in the format CV, CVV, CCV, etc. Common onset and
coda restrictions can normally be included in this type of notation
(i.e. coda is always glottal stop CV ), but this will complicate
searches (a search for languages with codas would include CVC+CV+CVN,
etc.). Separate fields are therefore added for such restrictions, so
that it is possible to stick to a very broad description in this field.
Collapsed syllable structure notation of the type CV(C) are
avoided, since this also hampers searches. All syllable types are separated by commas.
Ambisyllabicity:
This field is designed to designate whether the language has segments
that belong to two syllables simultaneously (which may not be easy to
determine at face value). Structural considerations play a role in
the decision of the status of, for instance, the /s/ in the Dutch noun
kassa or the /s/ in the English noun concert.
Restrictions on single
onsets:
If the language allows CV, CVV, CVC, CVVC (possibly with coda
clusters), can the single onset then be any consonant (including
glides) in the segment inventory of the language, or are certain
(classes of) segments ruled out? A well-known restriction, for
instance, is that English words cannot start with a velar nasal //,
while it is prolific as a word-initial segment in numerous Australian
languages.
Restrictions on onset
clusters:
Describes which types of onset clusters are allowed. In a CC onset
sequence, dependencies will exist between the first and the second
consonant. If the first is a stop, many languages will require the
second consonant to be a liquid. Another dependency might require the
first to be /s/ if the second is a stop. It is impossible to give
exhaustive lists here. Shorthand descriptions of the dependencies are
preferred: [Cstop]{l,r}, s[Cstop], etc.
Restrictions on single
codas:
If the language allows VC, VVC, CVC, CVVC (possibly with onset
clusters), can the single coda then be any consonant (including glides)
in the segment inventory of the language, or are certain (classes of)
segments ruled out? A well-known restriction, for instance, is that
Dutch words with long vowels cannot end with a velar nasal // *oo
*aa. This example shows that restrictions on single codas (and onsets)
need not apply across the board. If restrictions apply to a subset of
the possible syllables, they must be listed here.
Restrictions on coda
clusters:
Shows which types of coda clusters are allowed. In a CC coda sequence,
dependencies will exist between the first and the second consonant. If
the first is a stop, for instance, a language may require the second
consonant to be /s/. Another dependency might require the first to be a
liquid if the second is a stop. It is impossible to give exhaustive
lists here. Shorthand descriptions of the dependencies are preferred:
[Cstop]s, {l,r}[Cstop], etc.
Index
3.3.
Tab
page Contrastive nasality
On the tab page Contrastive nasality, information about the contrastive properties of consonants and vowels of the sound
system within which nasal harmony functions is provided. In particular, questions
focus on the nature of contrasts present in the set of non-continuant
consonants. Together with the parameter setting for the nasal/oral
opposition on vowels, these facts could reveal interdependencies
between the presence/absence of specific contrasts and the
presence/absence of specific types of contour segments in the language
and possibly suggest explanations for the occurrence of the latter.
Voiced-voiceless stop
contrast: Yes/No
Does the segment inventory of the language show a contrast between
voiced and voiceless stops?
Nasal contrast on
consonants: Yes/No
Does the segment inventory of the language show consonants that are
only differentiated by their nasality?
Nasal-voiced stop contrast:
Yes/No
Does the segment inventory of the language show a contrast between
nasal and voiced stops?
Nasal-voiced stop
contrast restrictions:
A language may have an opposition between voiced and nasal stops for
some places of articulation only, either across the board, or in a
given environment. If this is the case, state these restrictions.
Nasal-voiceless stop
contrast: Yes/No
Does the segment inventory of the language show a contrast between
nasal and voiceless stops?
Nasal-voiceless stop
contrast restrictions:
A language may have an opposition between voiceless and nasal stops for
some places of articulation only, either across the board, or in a
given environment. If this is the case, state these restrictions.
Nasal-oral vowel contrast:
Yes/No
Does the segment inventory of the language show vowels that are only
differentiated by their nasality?
Nasal-oral vowel contrast
restrictions:
Often the system of nasal vowels is more restricted than the system of
oral vowels. Does this apply to the language in question? One need not
state the restrictions here. Below in the window headed Examples, there
is a special field for entering the nasal vowel system of the language.
Index
3.4. Tab pages
Assimilation and Harmony
The tab pages Assimilation and Harmony contains the
parameters involved in nasal
assimilation and long-distance nasal harmony. Languages may have
assimilation, harmony, or both. Some languages have multiple
assimilation or nasal harmony processes. In this case, a new
language entry for each different process is added. These the entries are numbered L 1, L
2, L 3, etc., where L represents the name of the language. Under
'Quote', on the tab page Language info, it is stipulated for
all the language entries created
that L has more than one assimilation and/or harmony process, provide a
concise characterization of the different types and state which type is
being described in the present entry. Only the entry in L 1 contains
the information that is characteristic of the language as a whole.
Although most of the
parameters that appear on these tab pages are self-explanatory,
please find a succinct explanation below.
Assimilation
Nasal assimilation:
Yes/No
Nasal assimilation is understood here as the local spreading of a nasal
feature, to maximally one segment at one or each side of the triggering
segment (but see above).
Directionality:
Indicates whehter nasality spreads from the trigger to the left (regressive), to the
right (progressive), or moves in both directions (bidirectional).
Trigger segments class:
Indicates which segments trigger nasal harmony/assimilation. The set of trigger segments is provided as a class, if possible.
Trigger segments list:
Gives the set of trigger segments as a list.
Conditions on trigger
segments:
If there are conditions under which the trigger segments function as
such, these are listed here.
Target segments class:
Identifies which segments receive nasality as the result of the
harmony/assimilation rule. If possible, the set of target segments is provided as a
class, .
Target segments list:
Lists the set of target segments.
Conditions on target
segments:
If there are conditions under which the target segments become nasal,
these are registered in this field.
Harmony
For information about the fields regarding trigger and target segments,
see above under Assimilation.
Nasal harmony:
Yes/No
Nasal harmony refers to cases of spreading whereby a feature spreads
further than the neighboring segment, when the harmony is obtained from
a floating nasal feature, or when the domain of spreading is a prosodic
or morphological domain, such as the syllable. This excludes cases of
one-directional assimilation (one
segment to the left or to the right), as in languages where the nasal
feature of an onset stop spreads to the preceding vowel or
bi-directional assimilation (one segment to the left and to the right),
as in languages where the nasal feature of an onset consonant spreads
to the preceding and following vowel only.
Directionality:
Indicates whether nasality spreads from the trigger to the left (regressive), to the
right (progressive), or moves in both directions (bidirectional).
Domain of spreading
(both phonological and morphological):
Provides the largest morphological or prosodic unit within which
spreading takes place, for example: root, stem, word, syllable, foot,
phonological word, clitic group, etc.
Valence:
Unary or binary. Valence is unary if the single value [nasal]
is sufficient to account for the data. Valence is binary if
[±nasal] is required.
Transparent segments class:
Provides the class of segments that let nasality pass, but that do
not become nasal as part of the spreading process.
Transparent segments list:
Provides the list of segments that let nasality pass, but that do
not become nasal as part of the spreading process
Blockers class:
Provides the class of segments that block the spreading process, if
possible.
Blockers list:
Provides the list of segments that block the spreading process
Prenasalization of
blockers: Yes/No
In some languages the blocking segments are prenasalized. If this
happens in the language in question, this field states whether or not this applies
to the class (or a subclass) of blocking segments.
Postnasalization of
blockers: Yes/No
In some languages the blocking segments are postnasalized. If this
happens in the language being entered, this field states whether or not this
applies to the class (or a subclass) of blocking segments.
Contour segments:
Indicates whether the language have contour segments that cannot be considered
variants of an underlying segment that is not a contour segment. This
means that the contour property is itself contrastive in the language.
Notice that it is possible for a language to have ‘No’ in this
entry and still have contour segments in the language, as in Kaingang,
where contour segments are derived.
Source of contour segments:
Languages may have contour segments that are derived from plain
segments. Here we list three possible sources.
- Spreading of nasality.
Contours can arise through the contextual influence of nasal segments.
In a typical case VNC arise as variants of underlying sequences VC
through progressive nasal spreading from the nasal vowel to the
consonant (/ãp/> [amp]).
- Spreading of orality.
Contours can arise through the contextual influence of oral segments.
In a typical case VCN arise as variants of underlying sequences VN
sequence through progressive spreading of orality from the nasal vowel
to the consonant (/am/ > [abm]).
- Spontaneous contours (phonetic enhancement of non-sonorant
voice). These contour segments typically occur as variants of
underlying
voiced oral stops, especially in the syllable onset (see for example
discussion by Ohala 1983, Iverson & Salmons 1996, Keyser
& Stevens 2006, Wetzels 2008).
N.B. It may sometimes be difficult to
decide whether derived contour
consonants are caused by the spreading of orality or by phonetic
enhancement of non-sonorant voice.
Nasal morphemes:
Yes/No
Sometimes the nasal feature represents some morphological category in
the language, in which case it must be listed in the lexicon as a
morpheme by itself, as, for example, in Terena, where /N/ represents
the 1person singular morpheme.
Commutation level:
Establishes the level at which nasality is contrastive; specify
segment/syllable/morpheme/other.
Spreading source:
Indicates phoneme or nasal morpheme
Floating nasal:
Yes/No
In many languages exhibiting nasal harmony, words are either
‘entirely’ nasal or entirely oral. In such cases
nasality is usually represented as a floating feature that is linked by
the harmonic segments by association.
Stylistic conditions:
Asserts whether the rule is optional, if it only
applies in fast speech, etc.
Adjacency conditions:
Specifies any conditions on the adjacency of nasal(ized) segments,
such as segment adjacency, syllable adjacency, or none.
Index
3.5. Tab page
Segments
On this tab page, segment information about the language is given,
based on the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (UPSID, which
can be found at http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/faciliti/sales/software.htm#upsid. The
first lists shows all segments that have been entered for the language.
Below that, you find an overview of
these segments in three lists of
phonemes: one for consonants, one for vowels and one
for glottals and approximants.
N.B.
If you hover the mouse cursor over a particular segment, the phonetic
information regarding that segment is shown in a small popup window.
Anomalous Segments:
In this field the rare segments of the language are listed. Note that
these segments are also present in the inventory metnioned above. This
field simply
conveys which of the segments in that list are anomalous according to
the UPSID definition (rare segments, loans, etc.). For 317 languages
the status of segments can be checked in UPSID. For the rest, the
decision has been up to the encoder.
Index
3.6. Tab page
Examples
On this tab page, you will find examples that illustrate the
contrastive segments of the language.
Index
3.7. Tab page Stress
On this tab page, the stress system of the language is
described.
Stress rule(s):
The stress rule(s)are described here. As such descriptions may
often be quite prolix, and thus not conducive to easy searching, stress
patterns are coded. For this, the
scheme used in the StressTyp database (where it has
had 15 years to mature) is used. Stress codes for 510 languages can be found
there. For stress systems that are not yet represented in StressTyp,
new codes must have been created.
Stress Source:
This filed provides the descriptive source for the data in the previous
field. Only primary sources are used, since second hand
descriptions in theoretical works on
stress may be inaccurate or biased.
Index
3.8. Tab page Remarks
On this tab page, any remarks pertinent to the complete entry
for
this language are given. This field typically contains information
that the encoder could not put into one of the regular fields, but is
relevant nonetheless, or information regarding alternative analyses of
the data. If there was any doubt about certain data, this will have been expressed
here also. Lastly, if the language has nasal morphemes, the
morphological function of the nasal morpheme will be stipulated in this
area. The field ends with the name of the person who entered the
remark, if it is not the author of the entire record.
Index
3.9. Tab page
Source(s)
On this tab page, you find information about the sources of the
data for
the language described in this record. First, name, affiliation and email
address of the reasearcher are given. Next, you learn
if the data
are based on acoustic
evidence (yes/no) and/or tested in a
laboratory (yes/no).
Data collected:
In this field, it is indicated whether the data that you have entered
for the language are collected by yourself ('the
author'), from secondary sources, or both. Here, the
notion ‘secondary source’ means that the data have
been encoded from published sources that were not personally collected
by the person who enters the data.
Primary source(s):
Here the literature that describes the primary linguistic data of
the language is listed. These are usually descriptive grammars,
dissertations, or papers, but may be theoretical papers that are based
upon data gathered by the author(s).
Secondary source(s):
Here, you find references to literature that uses the data of this
language gathered
by others for theoretical, comparative, typological, or other purposes.
Index