View source for Nasal vowel

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=January 2022}}
{{Short description|Pronunciation of a vowel through the nose as well as the mouth}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2021}}
{{infobox IPA
|above=Nasal
|ipa number=424
|decimal1 = 771
|ipa symbol= ◌̃
}}

A '''nasal vowel''' is a [[vowel]] that is produced with a lowering of the [[soft palate]] (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the [[Human nose|nose]] and the [[human mouth|mouth]] simultaneously, as in the [[French language|French]] vowel /ɑ̃/ ({{Audio-IPA|Fr-en.ogg|}}) or [[Amoy dialect|Amoy]] [{{IPA|ɛ̃}}]. By contrast, '''oral vowels''' are produced without [[nasalization]].

'''Nasalized vowels''' are vowels under the influence of neighbouring sounds. For instance, the [{{IPA|æ}}] of the word ''hand'' is affected by the following nasal consonant. In most languages, vowels adjacent to [[nasal consonant]]s are produced partially or fully with a lowered velum in a natural process of [[Assimilation (phonology)|assimilation]] 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 no [[phoneme|phonemic]] distinction between nasal and oral vowels, and all vowels are considered phonemically oral.

Some languages contrast oral vowels and nasalized vowels [[phoneme|phonemically]].<ref>Crystal, David. (2008). Nasal. In ''A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics'' (6th ed., pp. 320–321). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.</ref> Linguists make use of [[minimal pair]]s 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 words ''beau'' {{IPA|/bo/}} "beautiful" and ''bon'' {{IPA|/bɔ̃/}} "good" are a [[minimal pair]] that contrasts primarily the vowel nasalization even though the {{IPA|/ɔ̃/}} from ''bon'' is slightly more [[open vowel|open]].

[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] allows nasal [[diphthong]]s, which contrast with their oral counterparts, like the pair ''mau'' {{IPA|/ˈmaw/}} "bad" and ''mão'' {{IPA|/ˈmɐ̃w̃/}} "hand".

Although there are French [[loanword]]s in English with nasal vowels like ''croissant'' [{{IPA|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.

==Influence on vowel height==
[[Nasalization]] as a result of the [[Assimilation (linguistics)|assimilation]] of a [[nasal consonant]] tends to cause a raising of [[Vowel#Height|vowel height]]; phonemically distinctive nasalization tends to lower the vowel.<ref>Beddor, P. S. 1983. ''Phonological and phonetic effects of nasalization on vowel height''</ref> According to a different assessment, high vowels do tend to be lowered, but low vowels tend to be raised instead.<ref>[https://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/10-PhoneticUniversals/pdf/Carignan_et_al.pdf Carignan, Christopher et al. 2010. Lingual response to vowel nasalization. Conference on Phonetic Universals, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, October 2010]</ref>

In most languages, vowels of all heights are nasalized indiscriminately, but preference occurs in some languages, such as for high vowels in [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]] and low vowels in [[Thai language|Thai]].<ref>Hajek, John. (2013). Vowel Nasalization. In M. Dryer & M. Haspelmath (eds.), ''The World Atlas of Language Structures Online''. Retrieved 30 March 2019 from [https://wals.info/chapter/10]</ref>

==Degree of nasalization==
A few languages, such as [[Palantla Chinantec]],<ref>Blevins, Juliette. (2004). ''Evolutionary Phonology: The Emergence of Sound Patterns'' (p. 203). Cambridge University Press.</ref> contrast lightly nasalized and heavily nasalized vowels. They may be contrasted in print by doubling the IPA diacritic for nasalization: {{angbr IPA|ẽ}} vs {{angbr IPA|ẽ̃}}. Bickford & Floyd (2006) combine the tilde with the [[ogonek]]: {{angbr IPA|ẽ}} vs {{angbr IPA|ę̃}}. (The ogonek is sometimes used in an otherwise IPA transcription to avoid conflict with [[Tone mark|tone diacritics]] above the vowels.)

==Origin==
{{Globalize|section|France|date=March 2025}}
Rodney Sampson described a three-stage historical account, explaining the origin of nasal vowels in modern [[French language|French]]. 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.<ref>Terry, Kristen Kennedy & Webb, Eric Russell. (2011). Modeling the emergence of a typological anomaly: Vowel nasalization in French. In ''Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 37''(1), 155–169.</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Historical development of French nasal vowels by century
! Stage 1 !! Stage 2 !! Stage 3
|-
| {{circa|13th}} || {{circa|14th}}–16th || {{circa|17th}}–18th
|-
| vend [vẽnt], [vɑ̃nt] || [vɑ̃(n)t] || [vɑ̃]
|}

In the [[Old French]] period, vowels became nasalized under the [[Assimilation (phonology)|regressive assimilation]], as VN > ṼN. In the [[Middle 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.

==Orthography==
{{uncited section|date=July 2024}}
Languages written with [[Latin script]] may indicate nasal vowels by a trailing [[Silent letter|silent]] ''n'' or ''m'', as is the case in French, Portuguese, [[Lombard language|Lombard]] (central classic orthography), [[Bambara language|Bamana]], [[Breton language|Breton]], and [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]].

In other cases, they are indicated by [[diacritic]]s. In the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]], nasal vowels are denoted by a [[tilde]] 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 in [[Guarani language|Paraguayan Guaraní]], phonemic nasality is indicated by a [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]] ( '''¨''' ) in the standardized orthographies of most varieties of [[Tupi–Guarani languages|Tupí-Guaraní]] spoken in [[Bolivia]]. [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Navajo language|Navajo]], and [[Elfdalian]] use a hook under the letter, called an [[ogonek]], as in ''ą, ę''. The [[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]] romanization of [[Taiwanese Hokkien]] and [[Amoy dialect|Amoy]] uses a superscript ''n'' (''aⁿ'', ''eⁿ'', ...). In the orthography of the [[First Grammatical Treatise]] for the [[Old Icelandic|Old Icelandic language]], nasal vowels are indicated with a dot above the vowel [[grapheme]]: 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/; the [[ogonek]] instead indicates [[Advanced and retracted tongue root|retracted tongue root]] or [[Tenseness|tense vowels]], cf. ǫ /ɔ/ vs o /o/ and e /e/ vs. ę /ɛ/. 

=== Arabic scripts ===

==== Indo-Aryan ====
Nasalization in Arabic-based scripts of languages such as [[Urdu alphabet|Urdu]], as well as [[Shahmukhi alphabet|Punjabi]] and [[Saraiki language|Saraiki]], commonly spoken in [[Pakistan]], and by extension [[India]], is indicated by employing the nasal vowel, a dotless form of the Arabic letter [[nun (letter)#Arabic nūn|nūn]] ({{lang|ur|{{unq|ن}}}}) or the letter marked with the ''maghnūna'' diacritic: respectively {{lang|ur|{{unq|ں}}}}, always occurring word finally, or {{lang|ur|{{unq|ن٘}}}} in the medial form, called "[[nun gunna|nūn ghunna]]". In [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], nasalization is represented with the standard [[Nun (letter)|nun letter]]. 

==== Classical Arabic ====
Nasalized vowels occur in [[Classical Arabic]] but not in contemporary speech or [[Modern Standard Arabic]]. There is no orthographic way to denote the nasalization, but it is systematically taught as part of the essential rules of ''[[tajwid]]'', used to read the [[Qur'an]]. Nasalization occurs in recitation, usually when a final [[nūn]] is followed by a [[Yodh#Arabic yāʼ|yāʾ]] ({{lang|ar|ي}}).<!-- {{citation needed| reason=don't delete this, but check it.|date=February 2020}} -->

=== Indic scripts ===
The [[Brahmic scripts]] used for most [[Languages of India|Indic languages]] mark nasalization with the [[anusvāra]] (◌ं), homophonically used for [[homorganic]] nasalization in a consonant cluster following the vowel) or the [[chandrabindu|anunāsika]] (◌ँ) diacritic (and its regional variants).

==Languages==
The following languages use phonemic nasal vowels:
{{Columns-list|colwidth=17em|
* [[Abenaki language|Abenaki]]
* [[Acehnese language|Acehnese]]
* [[Assamese language|Assamese]]
* [[Balochi language|Balochi]]
* [[Bavarian language|Bavarian]]
* [[Belize Kriol]]
* [[Bengali language|Bengali]]<ref>Nasalization is weak in Indian Bengali, and mostly absent in Bangladeshi Bengali</ref>
* [[Breton language|Breton]]
* [[Burmese language|Burmese]]
* [[Central Plains Mandarin]]
* [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]]
* [[Choctaw language|Choctaw]]
* [[Dutch language|Dutch]] (dialectal)
* [[Dutch Low Saxon]]
* [[Elfdalian]]
* [[Franco-Provençal language|Franco-Provençal]]
* [[French language|French]]
* [[Gbe languages]]
* [[Gheg Albanian]]
* [[Guarani language|Guaraní]]
* [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
* [[Haitian Creole]]
* [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]]
* [[Hmong language|Hmong]]
* [[Hokkien]]
* [[Jamaican Maroon Creole]]
* [[Jamaican Patois]]
* [[Japanese Language|Japanese]]
* [[Jiaoliao Mandarin]]
* [[Jilu Mandarin]]
* [[Jin Chinese]]
* [[Kashubian language|Kashubian]]
* [[Kelantan-Pattani Malay|Kelantan-Pattani]]
* [[Konkani language|Konkani]]
* [[Krio language|Krio]]
* [[Lakota language|Lakota]]
* [[Latin Language|Latin]]
* [[Lechitic languages|Lechitic]]
* [[Lombard language|Lombard]]
* [[Louisiana Creole|Louisiana Creole (Kouri-Vini)]]
* [[Mande languages]]
* [[Maxakalí language|Maxakalí]]
* [[Mirandese language|Mirandese]]
* [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]]
* [[Munda languages]]
* [[Navajo language|Navajo]]
* [[Ndyuka language|Ndyuka]]
* [[Nepali language|Nepali]]
* [[Nheengatu language|Nheengatu]]
* [[Occitan language|Occitan]] (dialectal)
* [[Old Church Slavonic]]
* [[Old Norse]]
* [[Oriya language|Oriya]]
* [[Pahang Malay]]
* [[Paicî language|Paicî]]
* [[Polish language|Polish]]
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] 
* [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]
* [[San Andres y Providencia Creole]]
* [[Saramaccan language|Saramaccan]]
* [[Scottish Gaelic]]<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1007/s11525-020-09347-5|title=Vowel nasalisation in Scottish Gaelic: No evidence for incomplete neutralisation in initial mutation|year=2021|last1=Morrison|first1=Donald Alasdair|journal=Morphology|volume=31|issue=2|pages=121–146|s2cid=213501945|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Seneca language|Seneca]]
* [[Silesian language|Silesian]]
* [[Sranan Tongo]]
* [[Taiwanese Hokkien]]
* [[Terengganu Malay|Terengganu]]
* [[Wu language|Wu]]
* [[Xavante language|Xavante]]
* [[Xiang Chinese]]
* [[Yele language|Yélî Dnye]]
* [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
}}

==See also==
* [[Nasalization]]
* [[Vowel]]
**[[front vowel]]
**[[back vowel]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*de Medeiros, Beatriz Raposo. (2011). Nasal Coda and Vowel Nasality in Brazilian Portuguese. In S. M. Alvord (Ed.), ''Selected Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology'' (pp.&nbsp;33–45).
*Hajek, John & Maeda, Shinji. (2000). Investigating Universals of Sound Change: the Effect of Vowel Height and Duration on the Development of Distinctive Nasalization. ''Papers in Laboratory Phonology V: Acquisition and the lexicon'' (pp.&nbsp;52–69).
*Jeong, Sunwoo. (2012). Directional asymmetry in nasalization: Aperceptual account. ''Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology, 18''(3), 437–469.
*Michaud, A., Jacques, G., & Rankin, R. L. (2012). Historical transfer of nasality between consonantal onset and vowel: from C to V or from V to C? ''Diachronica, 29''(2), 201–230.
*Sampson, Rodney. (1999). ''Nasal Vowel Evolution in Romance''. Oxford University Press.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasal Vowel}}
[[Category:Vowels]]
[[Category:Nasalization|Vowel]]