INVESTIGATING THE AERODYNAMICS OF NASALIZED FRICATIVES

Ryan K. Shosted
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

ID 1729
[full paper]

Nasalized oral fricatives do not exist in phonemic opposition to oral fricatives in any language of the world. It has been claimed that nasalized fricatives cannot exist phonetically; however, numerous grammatical descriptions suggest otherwise. This claim is addressed by measuring the presence of nasal airflow during the production of various anterior fricatives in conditions of coarticulatory nasalization. If nasal exhalation is taken as the definition of nasalization, then nasalized fricatives are shown to occur in speech. The potential acoustic and perceptual consequences of nasal flow during oral fricatives are discussed.