Constraints on the coda: The distribution of nasals

Nasal consonants may not appear in the coda when the nucleus consists of the diphthong /au/. The sequences so blocked are presented below.

It should be noted that this constraint is restricted to /au/ and does not apply to nuclei consisting of any of the other diphthongs, long vowels or short vowels in the language. The constraining effect which /au/ has on nasals in the coda has as its closest approximation the constraint already discussed involving /r/ in the coda. In the latter, however, the constraint operates with any vowel which does not have /a/ as the second element in the nucleus, either at the surface level or underlyingly. In the former case, by contrast, the constraint is restricted to a single diphthong, /au/. Of the three blocked combinations, it is /aun/ which assumes great sociolinguistic significance in the Jamaica language situation. This is because it is the one combination amongst those blocked by this constraint which occurs in JamE. All cognates which in JamE may appear with an /aun/ sequence are realized in JamC with /oŋ/.