A preliminary derivational account of consonant assimilation in Daur

Daur, an endangered Mongolic language spoken in regions of northeastern and northwestern China by over 50,000 people, has several processes assimilating adjacent consonants in terms of manner. There are a number of specifications on the consonants involved in these assimilatory processes and the specific manner features that assimilate, including nasality, laterality, and continuancy. While some of this assimilation can be minimally observed in the root, it is most clearly evident across morpheme boundaries. In some instances, the assimilation only takes place across syllable boundaries, i.e. the assimilation is not observed in coda clusters, and the Daur syllable template does not allow onset clusters.