Re: Nasal semivowels/fricatives?

Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
>>
>>And how are prenasalized stops different from nasal + stop clusters?
>
>They can begin syllables.
I meant phonetically. I can say /mb nd Ng/ at the beginning of
a word or syllable, pronouncing them (as far as I can tell) as
nasal + stop...

>>but there must be a difference. As for me, if I'm pronouncing
>>/b/ and let air through my nose, I make a sound that is quite
>>like /m/, but not the same. The question is: do these nasalized
>>stops contrast with proper nasal stops in any natlang?
>
>Good question - and if the air passes through your nose, it does not seem
>to be the sound Christophe is describing.

I couldn't say. My description was probably not correct; I don't
have real conscience of what is going on inside my mouth and nose
:) but I have an /m/ and this 'nasalized /b/' which I can distinguish
clearly. What I meant to say was that I pronounced /b/ and let air
through my nose at the same time -- but then, when oral release
stops, nasal release seems to do too. I'd need instruments and
some knowledge of anatomy to describe the difference.


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/draseleq.html