nasalisation of vowels

At 20:32 +0000 on 7.10.1998, Mathias M. Lassailly wrote:


> So unlike in French, nasalisation of vowels
> > is not a distinctive feature.
> >
> > Matt.
>
> That's a pity. I can't understand why nasalisation is not a common
>feature in ANY language. It's such a natural, peaceful and beautiful sound.
>
> Mathias
As it happens nasalized vowels are acoustically less distinct from one
another than their oral counterparts.  It _is_ very common in some
languages though.  E.g. most New Indo-Aryan languages have a full set of
nasalized vowels corresponding to their oral vowels.  There is even a
tendency for "intrusive nasalization", e.g. some vowels are nasalized
although their Middle and Old Indo-Aryan etyma lack the normal "input" for
NIA nasalized vowels (usually a nasalized vowel already in the earlier
language, or loss of intervocalic nasal consonants.)

/BP


B.Philip. Jonsson <bpj@...>

Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant (Tacitus)
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