Re: nasal m and n

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:22:32 -0800 (PST): ekkilu@xxxxxxxxx: in sci.lang:

Arrghhh, nasal vowels are not only possible, "nasal cardinal vowels"
are used in real languages, like Southern Min (Hoklo). By "nasal
cardinal vowels" I mean these vowels have well-defined frequency
spectrum, they are sustainable and maintain the same frequency
spectrum throughout the main body of the vowel, which can last beyond
one whole minute for a good swimmer or singer.

OK, so in your view [n], [m], [N] and [l] are all vowels.

What people call "nasal vowels" in European languages like French or
Portuguese are not "cardinal": the voice quality (and hence the
spectrum) changes.

Not necessarily.

Try to sustain a nasalized French vowel for 40 or
50 seconds, and you will realize what I mean. Most people will have
difficulty in sustaining a nasalized French vowel beyond 2 seconds.

I just said fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin for 10 seconds, and noticed no
problem. Same with Portuguese comuuuuuuum and coooooooom.

It's just a matter of keeping that thingy (whatever it is) in the back
of the nose in the middle position, so air flows equally through mouth
and nose. You need a good command of nasal vowels, of course, and if
ones native language dosn't have them, that requires practice.


--
Ruud Harmsen, http://rudhar.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Short-time frequency analyse.....
    ... Map network. ... first two formants of vowels(vowel is recorded in wave format). ... spectrum, where signal apmlitude is on vertical axis and signal ...
    (comp.soft-sys.matlab)
  • Re: Cardinal vowels
    ... Jones's Cardinal Vowels aren't meant to sound like the vowels of any ... any vowel in any language somewhere within the area encompassed by this ... significant contrasts that phonology investigates. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Cardinal vowels
    ... There have been a few comments in this thread about how cardinal vowels ... an examination of Australian English and New ... articulations differ again for any Brit English dialect etc etc. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: How close are these experts rendering of vowels?
    ... Cardinal Vowels over the decades, and they differ among themselves ... recordings - the "same" vowels would cluster together in a statistical ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Misperceptions of Spanish pronunciation?
    ... I hear these with 4 degrees of openness, ... >correspond to cardinal vowels on the vowel quadrilateral. ...
    (sci.lang)
Quantcast