Variable velic movement in Karitiâna

In Tupí-Karitiâna, there is a remarkable variety of nasal phones. Specifically, nasal consonants may take the form of simple nasals, pre-stopped nasals, post-stopped nasals, pre- AND post-stopped nasals, as well as simple voiced stops. The greatest variety of nasal phones occurs when nasal consonants occur between two oral vowels. The analysis here focuses on the phones occurring in this environment. Acoustic data are presented, based on the spectral analysis of Karitiâna words with inter-oral nasals. The duration of velic movement in such words is shown to be wide-ranging and generally unpredictable, for all eight speakers examined. The remarkable extent of variability of velic movement observed contravenes expectations based on the literature on nasality.