Missa: Phonology: Absence of Common Consonants: All present
Despite their presence, consonants /m β p/ have restricted distributions at the ends of syllables, and it appears that Missa is gradually taking steps to eliminate bilabial consonants in this position:
- /m/ before certain obstruents tends to drop in favor of allophonic vowel nasalization. This is common before /p/, not uncommon before /β/, and rare or possibly dialect-restricted before /s ɕ/ in root words (this process is more common before all sounds allowed to follow /m/ when that sound is part of a suffix). This phonetic process is also attested word-finally, although never in words comprising a single syllable.
- /β/ cannot occur at the ends of words or before a voiceless obstruent in an adjoining syllable if it occurs in coda position in the middle of a word.
- /p/ has been losing ground word-finally, tending to vocalize to an unstressed, super-short /u/ in coda clusters (e.g. /alp/ [ˈa.lu̯]). In other positions, it seems to either be unaffected, be unreleased, or change to [u̯] depending on whether or not it ends a stressed syllable, and marginally on dialect and on individual preference.
