Allophonic Variation In Plosives Book

Question 1

Nasal approach and release: produce the word wed. Concentrate on the d sound and the movements of your articulators.

Answer 1

Can you feel the approach, hold and release phases?

Question 2

Nasal approach and release: now produce the word when. Concentrate on the n

Answer 2

Again what movements of the articulators can you feel?

Question 3

Nasal approach and release: now think about the word wend.

Answer 3

Logically what might you expect to feel for the n and the d in this word, based on what you have discovered for n and d above?

Question 4

Nasal approach and release: try producing wend. What do you feel?

Answer 4

Specifically do you feel two approach, hold and release phases?

Question 5

Nasal approach and release: for d in wed you probably felt your tongue approaching the alveolar ridge making a firm closure in the hold phase

Answer 5

And then moving away quickly to a position of wide approximation, before the articulators return to there resting position

Question 6

Nasal approach and release: for n in when the articulators move in a very similar way

Answer 6

With the tongue approaching the alveolar ridge and making contact with it for a short time before moving away again. The major difference between n and d is that the velum is lowered for n so air does build up behind the closure

Question 7

Nasal approach and release: given that n and d both have approach, hold and release phases

Answer 7

You might have expected wend to contain two approach, hold and release phases. Instead however you would only have felt your tongue approach and leave the alveolar ridge once

Question 8

The reason you only feel one approach and release is that

Answer 8

The d is nasally rather than orally approached. To produce the n, the tongue approaches the alveolar ridge and makes firm contact with it. Meanwhile, the velum is lowered, so that air escapes through the nose

Question 9

Nasal approach and release: to move from an n to and however

Answer 9

The tongue does not need to approach the alveolar ridge, as it is already in place. In fact, all that needs to happen is for the velum to raise, closing off the nasal cavity, so that air can build up behind the alveolar closure.

Question 10

Nasal approach and release: therefore d is not approached orally by raising the tongue tip

Answer 10

But nasally by closing off the nasal cavity: this is called nasal approach

Question 11

Nasal release means

Answer 11

That a plosive consonant is not released orally by moving the active articulator away from the passive articulator. Instead, the velum is lowered so that air escapes through the nose, and the sound becomes a nasal

Question 12

An example of a nasal release might be a word like hidden

Answer 12

If n is syllabic and there is no schwa between the d and the n (as obviously the plosive and the nasal must be adjacent for nasal approach or release to occur)

Question 13

The diacritic for nasal approach is

Answer 13

A small n above the sound. This occurs as a superscript to the left of the plosive for nasal approach and to the right for nasal release

Question 14

Nasal approach and release only occur when

Answer 14

The nasal and plosive have the same place of articulation. This makes sense since if the place of articulation of the two is different, the speaker must do more than simply change the position of the velum and therefore the plosive will be approached or released orally

Question 15

Another word for the same place of articulation is

Answer 15

Homorganic

Question 16

Nasal approach and release also applies to

Answer 16

Voiceless plosives as long as they are adjacent to a homorganic nasal produced with a syllabic n for example lint and kitten

Question 17

Of course to change from t to n or vice vesta

Answer 17

The state of the glottis also needs to alter but the approach and release is the same as that described for the voiced plosives

Question 18

Note that in a parametric diagram, nasal approach and release are not shown as nasalisation of the plosive

Answer 18

The velum must be lowered for the nasal and closed for the plosive, so must move rapidly between them. It cannot move during the production of the plosive in Normal speech, as the plosive requires a closed velum throughout so that pressure can build, and therefore moves towards the end of the nasal for nasal approach