ABSTRACT
In this chapter I develop a description and analysis of a crosslinguistic typology of nasal harmony, focusing on variability in the set of segments undergoing nasalization and in those that block or behave transparent to nasal spreading. Across these variables, I propose to unify our understanding of nasal harmony as conforming to one basic type of pattern. As the basis for this study, I have compiled a database of nasal harmony systems, which comprises descriptions from over 75 languages. Each language entry includes information about the inventory of segments, the set of segments undergoing nasalization, and any blocking or transparent segments. The cross-linguistic generalizations established in this research define the facts to be explained by the analysis. These facts are summarized in this chapter and a condensed version of the database itself is appended.
