Opposite directionality in [+/–F] agreement: The case of Tupí oralization and nasalization Myriam Lapierre & Katherine Russell 2023 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America 1. Overview ● Following Lapierre & Michael’s (2018) typological overview of long distance nasal harmony (LDNH) in Tupí, we note that languages with long-distance leftward [+nasal] assimilation and local leftward [–nasal] assimilation are common, while languages with leftward [–nasal] and rightward [+nasal] assimilation are unattested. ○ e.g. Paraguayan Guaraní /a-je-henu/→[ãɲẽhẽn d u] ‘I heard myself’ ● To account for this asymmetry in directionality of assimilation, we propose an ABC analysis, which incorporates the use of Q Theoretic representations as well as directional feature agreement. ● An ABC+Q model accounts for both long-distance nasal harmony and complex nasal segments. ● Specifically, our analysis correctly derives the observation that opposite directionality of opposite feature values (e.g. leftward agreement of [αF] and rightward agreement of [-αF]) is unattested. ● Our proposal generates predictions not found in other models about the typology of local and long-distance nasal assimilation, allowing broader empirical coverage. 2. Empirical background ● Languages of the Tupían stock (n=50) provide an ideal case study, as they are well-known for exhibiting two closely related phenomena: ○ Allophonic alternations between fully nasal segments (e.g., [m]), complex nasal segments (e.g., [mb]), and in some cases, voiced oral stops (e.g., [b]) ■ A nasal consonant remains [+nas] next to nasal vowel, but pre- and/or post-oralizes when in contact with an oral vowel ○ Long-distance nasal harmony (LDNH; a.k.a. unbounded or iterative NH) ● These phenomena have been extensively discussed in the descriptive and theoretical literature (e.g., Goldsmith 1976, Miranda 2018, Lapierre & Michael 2017, 2018, etc.) ○ Here, we focus on looking at the types of systems that are both attested and unattested (rather than focusing on a single system) ● Across languages of the Tupían stock, we see several processes of oral and nasal assimilation, both local and long-distance (Table 1) ○ Both local and long-distance assimilation for [+nas]; only local for [-nas] Table 1: Attested and unattested processes of oral and nasal assimilation Oral Nasal Local Yes Yes Long-distance No Yes 1