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| Nasalised | |
|---|---|
| ◌̃ | |
| IPA number | 424 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ̃ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+0303 |
| Sound change andalternation |
|---|
| Fortition |
| Dissimilation |
Inphonetics,nasalisation (ornasalization inAmerican English) is the production of a sound while thevelum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth.[1] An archetypal nasal sound is[n].
In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, nasalisation is indicated by printing atilde diacriticU+0303 ◌̃COMBINING TILDE above the symbol for the sound to be nasalised:[ã] is the nasalised equivalent of[a], and[ṽ] is the nasalised equivalent of[v]. Although not IPA, a subscript diacritic[ą], called anogonek, is sometimes seen,[from whom?] especially when the vowel bearstone marks that would stack with the superscript tilde. For example, ⟨ą̄ą́ą̀ą̂ą̌⟩ are more legible than stacked ⟨ã̄ã́ã̀ã̂ã̌⟩. The subscript ogonek is also the preferred diacritic for nasalisation byAmericanists.
Many languages have nasalvowels to different degrees, but only a minority of world languages around the world have nasal vowels as contrasting phonemes. That is the case, among others, ofFrench,Portuguese,Hindustani,Kashmiri,Bengali,Nepali,Breton,Gheg Albanian,Hmong,Hokkien,Yoruba, andCherokee. Those nasal vowels contrast with their correspondingoral vowels. Nasality is usually seen as a binary feature, although surface variation in different degrees of nasality caused by neighboringnasal consonants has been observed.[2]
There are languages, such as inPalantla Chinantec, where vowels seem to exhibit three contrastive degrees of nasality: oral e.g.[e] vs lightly nasalised[ẽ] vs heavily nasalised[e͌];[3][4] Ladefoged and Maddieson believe that the lightly nasalised vowels are best described as oro-nasaldiphthongs.[5] Note that Ladefoged and Maddieson's transcription of heavy nasalisation with a double tilde was once ambiguous with theextIPA use of that diacritic forvelopharyngeal frication, though the extIPA has changed its notation to avoid this ambiguity.
By far the most common nasal sounds arenasal consonants such as[m],[n] or[ŋ]. Most nasal consonants are occlusives, and airflow through the mouth is blocked and redirected through the nose. Their oral counterparts are thestops.[citation needed]
Nasalised versions of other consonant sounds also exist but are much rarer than either nasal occlusives or nasal vowels. TheMiddle Chineseconsonant日 ([ȵʑ];[ʐ] in modernStandard Chinese) has an odd history; for example, it has evolved into[ʐ] and[ɑɻ] (or[ɻ] and[ɚ] respectively, depending on accents) inStandard Chinese;[z]/[ʑ] and[n] inHokkien;[z]/[ʑ] and[n]/[n̠ʲ] while borrowed into Japan. It seems likely that it was once a nasalized fricative, perhaps a palatal[ʝ̃].
InCoatzospan Mixtec, fricatives and affricates are nasalized before nasal vowels even when they are voiceless.In theHupa, thevelar nasal/ŋ/ often has the tongue not make full contact, resulting in a nasalized approximant,[ɰ̃].[citation needed] That iscognate with anasalised palatal approximant[ȷ̃] in otherAthabaskan languages.
InUmbundu, phonemic/ṽ/ contrasts with the (allophonically) nasalised approximant[w̃] and so is likely to be a true fricative rather than an approximant.[further explanation needed] InOld andMiddle Irish, thelenited⟨m⟩ was a nasalised bilabial fricative[β̃].[6]
Ganza[7] has a phonemic nasalizedglottal stop[ʔ̃] whileSundanese has it allophonically; nasalised stops can occur only with pharyngeal articulation or lower, or they would be simple nasals.[8] Nasalflaps are common allophonically. Many West African languages have a nasal flap[ɾ̃] (or[n̆]) as an allophone of/ɾ/ before a nasal vowel;voiced retroflex nasal flaps are common intervocalic allophones of/ɳ/ in South Asian languages.
A nasal trill[r̃] has been described from some dialects of Romanian, and is posited as an intermediate historical step inrhotacism. However, the phonetic variation of the sound is considerable, and it is not clear how frequently it is actually trilled.[9] Some languages contrast/r,r̃/ likeToro-tegu Dogon[10] andInor. A nasal lateral has been reported for some languages,Nzema contrasts/l,l̃/,[11]Nemi contrasts/w,w̥,h,w̃,w̥̃,h̃/.
Other languages, such as theKhoisan languages ofKhoekhoe andGǀui, as well as several of the!Kung languages, includenasal click consonants. Nasal clicks are typically with a nasal or superscript nasal preceding the consonant (for example, velar-dental ⟨ŋ͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨ᵑǀ⟩ and uvular-dental ⟨ɴ͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨ᶰǀ⟩).[12] Nasalised laterals such as[‖̃] (a nasalised lateral alveolar click) are easy to produce but rare or nonexistent as phonemes; nasalised lateral clicks are common in Southern African languages such asZulu. Often when/l/ is nasalised, it becomes[n].
| Nasal fricative | |
|---|---|
| ◌̾ | |
| ◌͋ |
Besides nasalised oral fricatives, there are true nasal fricatives, oranterior nasal fricatives, previously callednareal fricatives. They are sometimes produced by people withdisordered speech due to velopharyngeal-port incompetence. Theturbulence in the airflow characteristic offricatives is produced not in the mouth but at theanterior nasal port, the narrowest part of thenasal cavity. (Turbulence can also be produced at the posterior nasal port, or velopharyngeal port, when that port is narrowed – seevelopharyngeal fricative. With anterior nasal fricatives, the velopharyngeal port is open.)
An upright tilde is used for this in theextensions to the IPA:[n̾] is a voiced alveolar nasal fricative, with no airflow out of the mouth; this will generally occur when[n] is intended.[v̾] is an oral fricative with simultaneous nasal frication; this will generally occur when[v] is intended.
No known language makes use of nasal fricatives in non-disordered speech.
| Partially denasalized | |
|---|---|
| ◌͊ | |
| IPA number | 654 |
Nasalisation may be lost over time. There are alsodenasal sounds, which sound like nasals spoken with a head cold. They may be found in non-pathological speech as a language loses nasal consonants, as inKorean.[m͊] is a sound partway between[m] and[b].
Vowels assimilate to surroundingnasal consonants in many languages, such asThai, creating nasal vowel allophones. Some languages exhibit a nasalisation ofsegments adjacent to phonemic or allophonicnasal vowels, such asApurinã.
Contextual nasalisation can lead to the addition of nasal vowel phonemes to a language.[13] That happened in French, most of whose final consonants disappeared, but its final nasals made the preceding vowels become nasal, which introduced a new distinction into the language. An example isvin blanc[vɛ̃blɑ̃]'white wine', ultimately fromLatinvinum andblancum.
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