Re: Nasal semivowels/fricatives?

In a message dated 2/11/2000 3:46:30 PM Eastern Standard Time,
torpet@PP.QNET.FI Miekko writes:

<< The interesting h-debate (I'd dare bet alot that I'm the only 15-year old
 that finds it interesting), that probably everybody has noticed, made me
 wonder - if approximants *are* more or less vowels, then they should have
 the ability to be nasal, wouldn't they?

 According to the same debate, fricatives / approximants are very close to
 each others, articulatorily, so the same should be possible for fricatives,
 wouldn't it?

 My question basically can be put like this: 1) is this actually possible, 2)
 are there languages using this 3) can I have a nasal affricate in my lingo,
 mommy? >>
(1) yes of course, it's called "talking thru your nose", lots of Americans
are accused of doing it.  (2) probably not distinctively, i.e. to contrast
with non-nasalized /h/ or /Z/ or whatever, but if a word contains a nasal,
very likely the surrounding vowels and fricatives are nasalized too, simply
because most people don't have very precise control over their velum.
Consider French "ange" probably [a~Z~]?, maybe Am.Engl. "mice" [may~s~]?
Also, in Midwestern Am.Engl., the low vowel /æ/ (of "cat, dash, bat" etc.)
tends to cause nasalization even if the word lacks a nasal. (3) Sure, why
not, though it will probably lead to nasalization of preceding or following
vowels... unless your con-people have better velum-control that many humans
;-).
Roger (not your mommy)