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Nasalization is the modification of speech sounds by air flowing through the nasal cavity. The velum controls whether air flows through the oral or nasal cavity. English has three nasal consonants, and vowels become nasalized near them. Nasalization errors in children usually resolve on their own, but disorders such as cleft palate may require surgery to correct.
Nasalization is the production of speech sounds by blowing air through the nasal cavity. The air rising from the lungs is modified at different points by various structures to produce the different sounds used in speech. As air flows upward, it can be diverted into the oral or nasal cavity. Three consonant sounds in English are characterized by nasalized airflow. English vowels are only nasalized when they occur near a nasalized consonant in a word.
The velum, or soft palate, is a muscle located at the back of a person’s palate. Facilitates or prevents nasalization of speech sounds by channeling air into the oral or nasal cavity. When closed, the veil seals the nasal cavity for the production of oral speech sounds, open it does the opposite to facilitate nasal sounds. Breathing requires an open veil position so that the veil remains open at rest. Closing it to produce oral speech sounds requires active muscle control.
English has three nasal consonants: n, m and ng. These three sounds are produced using oral articulators, such as the lips for m, even though the air mostly flows through the nasal cavity. While there are no English vowels with nasalization as a distinguishing feature, vowels in the vicinity of nasal consonants often become nasalized during normal speech production due to a process called assimilation. Listeners perceive the lack of nasalization of normally assimilated vowels as incorrect pronunciation. Other languages, such as French, have purely nasalized vowels.
Many children exhibit nasalization errors as they learn to speak. For example, a child may nasalize the beginning of a word that ends in a nasalized sound, or vice versa, by substituting “man” for “tan” or “man” for “mat.” Assimilation errors such as these are easily identified based on communication contexts and typically resolve in early childhood without intervention. Errors of this type that persist beyond five years should be evaluated by a speech pathologist.
Disorders such as cleft palate often result in overproduction of nasal sounds of speech. In many cases, palatal disturbances affect the velar musculature and make it difficult to lift the veil and close the nasal cavity. This results in normally oral sounds being produced through the nose, which distorts the sound and often makes it difficult to understand the person’s speech. Surgery is often needed to correct this type of nasalization error.
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