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Above The Symbol For The Sound To Be Nasalized

The document discusses nasalization in phonetics. It explains that nasalization occurs when air flows through both the nose and mouth simultaneously during sound production. It describes how the soft palate controls whether sounds are nasalized or not. It distinguishes between nasalized vowels, where nasality comes from an adjacent nasal consonant, and true nasal vowels, where nasality is an inherent feature. It also discusses how nasal consonants can assimilate and influence each other between words.

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383 views

Above The Symbol For The Sound To Be Nasalized

The document discusses nasalization in phonetics. It explains that nasalization occurs when air flows through both the nose and mouth simultaneously during sound production. It describes how the soft palate controls whether sounds are nasalized or not. It distinguishes between nasalized vowels, where nasality comes from an adjacent nasal consonant, and true nasal vowels, where nasality is an inherent feature. It also discusses how nasal consonants can assimilate and influence each other between words.

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anmar ahmed
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Anmar Ahmed

Nasalization

1 – The Articulation of Nasalization

The top of the pharynx is like a crossroads. The airstream can exit the pharynx in
either of two ways, depending on the position of the soft palate. If the soft palate is
lowered, a portion of the air will pass through the nasal cavity (the remainder finding its
way through the oral cavity). If the soft palate is raised, access to the nasal cavity is cut
off, and the air can only pass through the oral cavity. The sounds produced via the first
method are [+nasal]. Those produced the other way are [-nasal] ( Birjandi & Nodoushan ,
2005 , P - 82 ) .

Typical vowels are produced with air flowing from the lungs through the mouth, but
any vowel can be produced with nasalization, where air flows through the nose as well as
through the mouth, by lowering the velum ( Odden , 2005 , P . 23 ) .

The articulation is a line between the nasalized vowel and non-nasalized one . The
nasalized sounds, preceding a nasal consonant, as opposed to the vowel which precedes
an oral one, are characterized by airflow through both nose and mouth simultaneously .

For instance, in all varieties of English, vowels become nasalized immediately before
nasal consonants; the velum lowers in anticipation of the forthcoming nasal, and allows
air to flow through the nasal as well as the oral cavity during the production of the vowel.
If you produce cat and can, then regardless of whether your vowel is front or back, there
will be a slight difference in quality due to nasalization in the second case; you may hear
this as a slight lowering of the pitch ( McMahon , 2002 , P . 86 ) .

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, nasalization is indicated by printing


a tilde diacritic ( ◌̃ ) above the symbol for the sound to be nasalized .
2 – The Definition

We all of us speak through our noses on some occasions. Whenever we say a word
with an m, n, ŋ the air comes out of the nose and not the mouth. Usually the nasal
passages are blocked off during other sounds. But when there is a nasal consonant,
m, n, ŋ, after a vowel (as in ram, ran, rang), the soft palate may lower somewhat early,
so that during the last part of the vowel air goes out through the nose. The result is
a nasalized vowel ( Ladefoged & Disner , 2012 , P – 182 ) .

Nasalization is often heard on English vowels, when they display the articulatory
influence of an adjacent nasal consonant, as in mat or hand. The vowel in a word like
man may be articulated with the soft palate lowered throughout, because of this influence
– an instance of anticipatory coarticulation. Such cases, where the nasality comes from
other sounds, would be referred to as ‘nasalized’ vowels.

3 – Nasalized Vowels and Nasal Vowels

The word again contains a vowel needs to become a nasal /əgˈɛñ / . This point is part
of what is known as assimilation because , an assimilation rule is a rule that makes
neighboring segments more similar by duplicating a phonetic property . In assimilation
when there is a vowel followed by a nasal stop , it becomes a simulated to the following
sound , which is a key of regressive assimilation , so the vowel became nasal . This paves
the way to nasalization .

Nasalization is the lowering of the velum ( soft palate ) to open the nasal cavity for the
outflow of air . When one says the word /əgˈɛñ / , before getting to / n /, he opens the
nasal cavity for the pronounciatin of / ɛ̃ / . When a vowel is nasalized , it is called a
nasalized vowel . Such cases , where the nasality comes from other sounds ( Crystal ,
2008 , P . 321 ) .

The term ‘nasal vowel’, on the other hand, suggests that the nasality is an essential
identifying feature of the sound , as in French word beau / bo / . So the vowel is
pronounced with nasality without any interaction from a following sound , but because
nasality is an essential identifying feature of the sound .

Nasal vowels are found in over 20% of the languages around the world, such
as French, Polish, Portuguese, Breton, GhegAlbanian, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Hmong, Ho
kkien, Yoruba and Cherokee. Those nasal vowels contrast with their corresponding oral
vowels .

4 – The Nasality Effect Between Nasal Consonants

A special kind of nasalization occurs when one nasal consonant changes into another
nasal consonant . The prefix [ɪn] can change into [ɪm] when it is followed by [+anterior,
-coronal] consonants. The prefix [ɪn] can also change into [ɪŋ] when it is followed by [-
anterior, -coronal] consonants as in words like incomplete and inglorious. ( Birjandi &
Nodoushan , 2005 , P - 145 ) .

5 – Phonemic Nasalization

Phonemic assimilation involving nasality ( I , e , anticipation or perseveration of the


lowered soft palate position ) would be likely to show /b/ or /v/ → /m/ , /d/ , /z/ or / ð /
→ /n/ , /g/→ / ŋ / , such changes being based on roughly homorganic mouth articulation ,
nasalization of other sounds e , g , vowels is never phonemic , there being no nasalized
counterpart with approximately homorganic mouth articulation . Such phonemic
nasalization as does occur concerns mainly the alveolars , especially adjacent to the
negative 'nt / n (t ) , and is characteristic of very rapid speech . For example :

/ d → n / …….. He wouldn't do it /hi wnn(t) du: it / , / d → g → ŋ / …….. He wouldn't go


/ hi wuŋŋ (k) gəʊ / ( Cruttenden , 2000 , P . 284 ) .
References

Birjandi , P & Nodoushan , M . ( 2005 ) . An Introduction to Phonetics . Tehran :


Zabankadeh Publications

Cruttenden , A . ( 2000 ) . Gimson's Pronounciatin of English . London : Edward Arnold

Crystal , D . ( 2008 ) . A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics . Oxford : Black Well

Ladefoged , P & Disner , S . ( 2012 ) . Vowels and Consonants . Oxford : Black Well

McMahon , A . ( 2002 ) . An Introduction to English Phonology . Edinburg : Edinburg


University Press .

Odden , D . ( 2005 ) . Introducing Phonology . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press

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