Final nasal consonants and nasalised vowels in Ikaan

In the origin of nasal vowels, nasal consonants are said to play a major role. In early work, Ferguson (1966: 59) traces nasal vowels back to the loss of a nasal consonant. Greenberg (1966: 508-9) refines this position, adding that in the historical development nasality first spreads from a following nasal consonant to a preceding oral vowel. In a second step, the nasal consonant is deleted leaving a nasal vowel