Editing Zulu language (section)

====Prenasalisation====

Prenasalisation occurs whenever a consonant is preceded by a homorganic nasal, either lexically or as a consequence of prefixation. The most notable case of the latter is the class 9 noun prefix ''in-'', which ends in a homorganic nasal. Prenasalisation triggers several changes in the following consonant, some of which are phonemic and others allophonic. The changes can be summed as follows:<ref>Rycroft & Ngcobo (1979) ''Say it in Zulu'', p. 6</ref><ref>''Zulu-English dictionary'', C.M. Doke & B.W. Vilakazi</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
! Normal
! Prenasalised
! Rule
|-
| {{IPA|/pʰ/}}, {{IPA|/tʰ/}}, {{IPA|/kʰ/}}
| {{IPA|/mp/}}, {{IPA|/nt/}}, {{IPA|/ŋk/}}
| Aspiration is lost on obstruents.
|-
| {{IPA|/ǀʰ/}}, {{IPA|/ǁʰ/}}, {{IPA|/ǃʰ/}}
| {{IPA|/ᵑǀ/}}, {{IPA|/ᵑǁ/}}, {{IPA|/ᵑǃ/}}
| Aspiration is replaced by nasalisation of clicks.
|-
| {{IPA|/ǀ/}}, {{IPA|/ǁ/}}, {{IPA|/ǃ/}}
| {{IPA|/ᵑǀʱ/}}, {{IPA|/ᵑǁʱ/}}, {{IPA|/ᵑǃʱ/}}
| Plain clicks become breathy nasal.
|-
| {{IPA|/ɓ/}}
| {{IPA|/mb/}}
| Implosive becomes breathy.
|-
| {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, {{IPA|/ɬ/}}<br />{{IPA|/v/}}, {{IPA|/z/}}, {{IPA|/ɮ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɱp̪fʼ]}}, {{IPA|[ntsʼ]}}, {{IPA|/ntʃ/}}, {{IPA|[ntɬʼ]}}<br />{{IPA|[ɱb̪vʱ]}}, {{IPA|[ndzʱ]}}, {{IPA|[ndɮʱ]}}
| Fricatives become affricates. Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for {{IPA|/ntʃ/}}.
|-
| {{IPA|/h/}}, {{IPA|/ɦ/}}, {{IPA|/w/}}, {{IPA|/wʱ/}}
| {{IPA|[ŋx]}}, {{IPA|[ŋɡʱ]}}, {{IPA|[ŋɡw]}}, {{IPA|[ŋɡwʱ]}}
| Approximants are [[Fortition|fortified]]. This change is allophonic, and not reflected in the orthography.
|-
| {{IPA|/j/}}
| {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
| Palatal approximant becomes palatal nasal.
|-
| {{IPA|/l/}}
| {{IPA|/l/}} or rarely {{IPA|/nd/}}
| The outcome {{IPA|/nd/}} is a fossilised outcome from the time when {{IPA|/d/}} and {{IPA|/l/}} were still one phoneme. See [[Proto-Bantu language]].
|-
| {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
| {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
| No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal.
|}