Nasalization
Encyclopedia
In phonetics
, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum
is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is [n].
In the International Phonetic Alphabet
nasalization is indicated by printing a tilde
diacritic above the symbol for the sound to be nasalized: [ã] is the nasalized equivalent of [a], and [ṽ] is the nasalized equivalent of [v]. An older IPA subscript diacritic [ą], called an ogonek
, is still seen, especially when the vowel bears tone
marks that would interfere with the superscript tilde. For example, [ą̄ ą́ ą̀ ą̂ ą̌] are more legible in most fonts than [ã̄ ã́ ã̀ ã̂ ã̌].
, Portuguese
, Breton
, Polish
. In these, as well as and languages found in other language families outside Europe, nasal vowels contrast with oral vowels. Many languages, however, only have oral vowels.
There are occasional cases where vowels show contrasting degrees of nasality.
such as [m], [n] or [ŋ]. They may be called stops because airflow through the mouth is blocked, though air flows freely through the nose. Their non-nasal articulatory counterparts are the oral stops
.
Nasalized versions of other consonant sounds also exist, though they are much rarer than either nasal stops or nasal vowels. Some of the South Arabic languages have phonemic nasalized fricatives, such as /z̃/, which sounds something like a simultaneous [n] and [z]. The sound written ⟨r⟩ in Mandarin has an odd history; for example, it has been borrowed into Japanese
as both [z] and [n]. It seems likely that it was once a nasalized fricative, perhaps a palatal [ʝ̃]. In the Hupa
velar nasal
/ŋ/, the tongue often does not make full contact, resulting in a nasalized approximant, [ɰ̃]. This is cognate
with a nasalized palatal approximant [ȷ̃] in other Athabaskan languages
. In Umbundu, phonemic /ṽ/ contrasts with the (allophonically
) nasalized approximant [w̃], and so is likely to be a true fricative rather than an approximant. In Old and Middle Irish, the lenited
⟨m⟩ was a nasalized bilabial fricative.
in the airflow characteristic of fricatives is produced not in the mouth but in the nasal cavity
. A tilde plus trema diacritic is used for this in the Extensions to the IPA
: [n͋] is an alveolar nareal fricative, with no airflow out of the mouth, while [v͋] is an oral fricative (a [v]) with simultaneous nareal frication. No known natural language makes use of nareal consonants.
sounds, which sound like nasals spoken with a head cold, but these are not used in non-pathological speech.
s in many languages, such as Thai
, creating nasal vowel allophones. Some languages exhibit a nasalization of segments
adjacent to phonemic or allophonic nasal vowels, such as Apurinã
. Contextual nasalization can lead to the addition of nasal vowel phonemes to a language. This happened in French, where most final consonants disappeared, but where in the case of final nasals, the preceding vowels became nasal, introducing a new distinction into the language. An example where this happened is vin blanc vɛ̃ blɑ̃ ('white wine'), ultimately from Latin vinum and blancum.
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum
Soft palate
The soft palate is the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone....
is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is [n].
In the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
nasalization is indicated by printing a tilde
Tilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
diacritic above the symbol for the sound to be nasalized: [ã] is the nasalized equivalent of [a], and [ṽ] is the nasalized equivalent of [v]. An older IPA subscript diacritic [ą], called an ogonek
Ogonek
The ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
, is still seen, especially when the vowel bears tone
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
marks that would interfere with the superscript tilde. For example, [ą̄ ą́ ą̀ ą̂ ą̌] are more legible in most fonts than [ã̄ ã́ ã̀ ã̂ ã̌].
Nasal vowels
Nasal vowels are found in many European languages, such as FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
. In these, as well as and languages found in other language families outside Europe, nasal vowels contrast with oral vowels. Many languages, however, only have oral vowels.
There are occasional cases where vowels show contrasting degrees of nasality.
Nasalized consonants
By far the most common nasalized sounds are nasal stopsNasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
such as [m], [n] or [ŋ]. They may be called stops because airflow through the mouth is blocked, though air flows freely through the nose. Their non-nasal articulatory counterparts are the oral stops
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
.
Nasalized versions of other consonant sounds also exist, though they are much rarer than either nasal stops or nasal vowels. Some of the South Arabic languages have phonemic nasalized fricatives, such as /z̃/, which sounds something like a simultaneous [n] and [z]. The sound written ⟨r⟩ in Mandarin has an odd history; for example, it has been borrowed into Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
as both [z] and [n]. It seems likely that it was once a nasalized fricative, perhaps a palatal [ʝ̃]. In the Hupa
Hupa language
-External links :* * overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages*...
velar nasal
Velar nasal
The velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
/ŋ/, the tongue often does not make full contact, resulting in a nasalized approximant, [ɰ̃]. This is cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
with a nasalized palatal approximant [ȷ̃] in other Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
. In Umbundu, phonemic /ṽ/ contrasts with the (allophonically
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
) nasalized approximant [w̃], and so is likely to be a true fricative rather than an approximant. In Old and Middle Irish, the lenited
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
⟨m⟩ was a nasalized bilabial fricative.
Nareal consonants
Besides nasalized oral fricatives, there are true nasal fricatives, called nareal fricatives, sometimes produced by people with speech defects. That is, the turbulenceTurbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...
in the airflow characteristic of fricatives is produced not in the mouth but in the nasal cavity
Nasal cavity
The nasal cavity is a large air filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face.- Function :The nasal cavity conditions the air to be received by the other areas of the respiratory tract...
. A tilde plus trema diacritic is used for this in the Extensions to the IPA
Extensions to the IPA
The Extensions to the IPA are extensions of the International Phonetic Alphabet and were designed for disordered speech. However, some of the symbols are occasionally used for transcribing normal speech as well, particularly in certain languages.-Brackets:The Extended IPA for speech pathology has...
: [n͋] is an alveolar nareal fricative, with no airflow out of the mouth, while [v͋] is an oral fricative (a [v]) with simultaneous nareal frication. No known natural language makes use of nareal consonants.
Denasalization
Nasalization may be lost over time. There are also denasalDenasal
In phonetics, denasalization is the loss of nasal airflow in a nasal stop or nasal vowel. This may be due to speech pathology, but also occurs when the sinuses are blocked from a cold, in which case it is called a 'nasal voice'...
sounds, which sound like nasals spoken with a head cold, but these are not used in non-pathological speech.
Contextual nasalization
Vowels assimilate to surrounding nasal consonantNasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
s in many languages, such as Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
, creating nasal vowel allophones. Some languages exhibit a nasalization of segments
Segment (linguistics)
In linguistics , the term segment may be defined as "any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech."- Classifying speech units :...
adjacent to phonemic or allophonic nasal vowels, such as Apurinã
Apurinã language
- Vowels :Apurinã vowels are obligatorily nasalized by surrounding nasal vowels, even across word boundaries.- Consonants :-References:*Da Silva Facundes, Sidney. The language of the Apurinā people of Brazil . Ph.D. dissertation, SUNY Buffalo. -External links:* Cathie Aberdour – * *...
. Contextual nasalization can lead to the addition of nasal vowel phonemes to a language. This happened in French, where most final consonants disappeared, but where in the case of final nasals, the preceding vowels became nasal, introducing a new distinction into the language. An example where this happened is vin blanc vɛ̃ blɑ̃ ('white wine'), ultimately from Latin vinum and blancum.