Nasalization of Sounds

supplementary articulation consisting of a lowering of the soft palate. The passage through the nose thereby opened for a stream of air stimulates the nasal resonator, which imparts the corresponding coloration to the sound. Acoustically, the nasalization of sounds is expressed mainly in a weakening of the first formant and in the appearance of new, supplementary formants. Nasalization of consonants is rarely encountered (an exception is the nasalized j in Yakut); nasalization of vowels is very widespread. In Russian, it is determined by the proximity of nasal consonants and has no phonological significance. In a number of languages, such as French, a distinction is made between nasalized and nonnasalized phonemes.