Breathy voice during nasality: A cross-linguistic study

In this study, we test whether nasal consonants and vowels are also produced with breathier voice quality than their oral counterparts in three Yi (Loloish) languages: Bo, Luchun Hani, and Southern Yi. We analyzed oral vs. nasal vowels and consonants using electroglottographic and acoustic measures of phonation. Results indicate that nasal consonants are often breathier than laterals, as are vowels following nasals when compared to vowels following oral consonants. These findings support the assumption that at least some of these nasal-breathy sound changes involve a stage in which the two articulations co-occur. We claim that the production of breathy voice quality during nasals can arise through listener misperception or phonetic enhancement. These findings also contribute to the understanding of nasality as an abstract feature that involves multiple articulations.
Source: Journal of Phonetics - Category: Speech Therapy Source Type: research