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| Nasal | |
|---|---|
| ◌̃ | |
| IPA number | 424 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ̃ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+0303 |
Anasal vowel is avowel that is produced with a lowering of thesoft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through thenose and themouth simultaneously, as in theFrench vowel /ɑ̃/ (ⓘ) orAmoy [ɛ̃]. By contrast,oral vowels are produced withoutnasalization.
Nasalized vowels are vowels influenced by nearby sounds. For instance, the [æ] of the wordhand in English is affected by the following nasal consonant. In most languages, vowels adjacent tonasal consonants are produced partially or fully with a lowered velum in a natural process ofassimilation and are therefore technically nasal, but few speakers would notice. That is the case in English: vowels preceding nasal consonants are nasalized, but there is nophonemic distinction between nasal and oral vowels, and all vowels are considered phonemically oral.
Some languages contrast oral vowels and nasalized vowelsphonemically.[1] Linguists make use ofminimal pairs to decide whether or not the nasality is of linguistic importance. In French, for instance, nasal vowels are distinct from oral vowels, and words can differ by the vowel quality. The wordsbeau/bo/ "beautiful" andbon/bɔ̃/ "good" are aminimal pair that contrasts primarily the vowel nasalization even though the/ɔ̃/ frombon is slightly moreopen.
Portuguese allows nasaldiphthongs, which contrast with their oral counterparts, like the pairmau/ˈmaw/ "bad" andmão/ˈmɐ̃w̃/ "hand".
Although there are Frenchloanwords in English with nasal vowels likecroissant [ˈkɹwɑːsɒ̃], there is no expectation that an English-speaker would nasalize the vowels to the same extent as French-speakers or Portuguese-speakers. Likewise, pronunciation keys in English dictionaries do not always indicate nasalization of French or Portuguese loanwords.
Nasalization as a result of theassimilation of anasal consonant tends to cause a raising ofvowel height; phonemically distinctive nasalization tends to lower the vowel.[2] According to a different assessment, high vowels do tend to be lowered, but low vowels tend to be raised instead.[3]
In most languages, vowels of all heights are nasalized indiscriminately, but preference occurs in some languages, such as for high vowels inChamorro and low vowels inThai.[4]
A few languages, such asPalantla Chinantec,[5] contrast lightly nasalized and heavily nasalized vowels. They may be contrasted in print by doubling the IPA diacritic for nasalization: ⟨ẽ⟩ vs ⟨ẽ̃⟩. Bickford & Floyd (2006) combine the tilde with theogonek: ⟨ẽ⟩ vs ⟨ę̃⟩. (The ogonek is sometimes used in an otherwise IPA transcription to avoid conflict withtone diacritics above the vowels.)
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Rodney Sampson described a three-stage historical account, explaining the origin of nasal vowels in modernFrench. The notation of Terry and Webb is used below, where V, N, and Ṽ (with a tilde above) represent oral vowel, nasal consonant, and nasal vowel, respectively.[6]
| Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
|---|---|---|
| c. 13th | c. 14th–16th | c. 17th–18th |
| vend [vẽnt], [vɑ̃nt] | [vɑ̃(n)t] | [vɑ̃] |
In theOld French period, vowels became nasalized under theregressive assimilation, as VN > ṼN. In theMiddle French period, the realization of the nasal consonant became variable, as VN > Ṽ(N). As the language evolves into its modern form, the consonant is no longer realized, as ṼN > Ṽ.
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Languages written withLatin script may indicate nasal vowels by a trailingsilentn orm, as is the case in French, Portuguese,Lombard (central classic orthography),Bamana,Breton, andYoruba.
In other cases, they are indicated bydiacritics. In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, nasal vowels are denoted by atilde over the symbol for the vowel. The same practice can be found in Portuguese marking with a tilde in diphthongs (e.g.põe) and for words ending in /ɐ̃/ (e.g.manhã,irmã). While the tilde is also used for this purpose inParaguayan Guaraní, phonemic nasality is indicated by adiaeresis (¨ ) in the standardized orthographies of most varieties ofTupí-Guaraní spoken inBolivia.Polish,Navajo, andElfdalian use a hook under the letter, called anogonek, as iną, ę. ThePe̍h-ōe-jī romanization ofTaiwanese Hokkien andAmoy uses a superscriptn (aⁿ,eⁿ, ...). In the orthography of theFirst Grammatical Treatise for theOld Icelandic language, nasal vowels are indicated with a dot above the vowelgrapheme: a /ɑ/ vs ȧ /ɑ̃/, ǫ /ɔ/ vs ǫ̇ /ɔ̃/, e /e/ vs. ė /ẽ/ vs ę /ɛ/ vs. ę̇ /ɛ̃/, ı /i/ vs i /ĩ/, o /o/ vs ȯ /õ/, ø /ø/ vs. ø̇ /ø̃/, u /u/ vs u̇ /ũ/, y /y/ vs ẏ /ỹ/; theogonek instead indicatesretracted tongue root ortense vowels, cf. ǫ /ɔ/ vs o /o/ and e /e/ vs. ę /ɛ/.
Nasalization in Arabic-based scripts of languages such asUrdu, as well asPunjabi andSaraiki, commonly spoken inPakistan, and by extensionIndia, is indicated by employing the nasal vowel, a dotless form of the Arabic letternūn (ن) or the letter marked with themaghnūna diacritic: respectivelyں, always occurring word finally, orن٘ in the medial form, called "nūn ghunna". InSindhi, nasalization is represented with the standardnun letter.
Nasalized vowels occur inClassical Arabic but not in contemporary speech orModern Standard Arabic. There is no orthographic way to denote the nasalization, but it is systematically taught as part of the essential rules oftajwid, used to read theQur'an. Nasalization occurs in recitation, usually when a finalnūn is followed by ayāʾ (ي).
TheBrahmic scripts used for mostIndic languages mark nasalization with theanusvāra (◌ं), homophonically used forhomorganic nasalization in a consonant cluster following the vowel) or theanunāsika (◌ँ) diacritic (and its regional variants).
The following languages use phonemic nasal vowels: