Missa: Phonology: Vowel Nasalization: Contrast absent
Because nasal vowels are non-contrastive phonemically does not mean they are absent phonetically. The language appears to be slowly moving towards developing a phonemic nasality contrast. These include:
- /a u/ + cluster of nasal and stop, or /a u/ + word-final nasal (esp. in the suffix /-on/), having optional release as [ã ũ]
- /eŋ/ word-finally in isolation being released as [ẽ]
- /o/ + cluster of nasal and stop, or /o/ + word-final nasal (esp. in the suffix /-on/), being released variously as [ɔ̃] or [õ]
So far, /i/ has mostly resisted this trend toward nasal allophony.
