Nasal

A nasal sound is a sound during whose production air travels up the nasal passage. In consonants, nasal is a manner of articulation.

Nasal is a feature which characterizes sounds that are produced by lowering the soft palate (=velum), allowing the air to escape through the nose. (Cf. damping for the spectral consequences of involving the nasal cavity in the articulation)

Examples

English has the following nasal consonants: [n], [m], [ŋ] (cf. bang).

Origin

Nasal is the relational adjective derived from Latin nasus 'nose'.

Links

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

Other languages

German Nasal (de)

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