nasaal

Nasaal is a term used in several languages, including Dutch, to denote things related to the nose or to nasal resonance in speech. In a linguistic context, nasaal describes sounds produced with air flowing through the nose, often through lowering the velum (the soft palate) to open the nasal cavity.

In phonetics, nasal sounds include nasal consonants such as m, n, and ŋ, which are produced with a lowered velum that allows air to escape mainly through the nose. Some languages also have nasal vowels, where a vowel is articulated with nasal resonance. Examples of nasal vowels can be found in languages like French and Portuguese, where vowels carry a nasal quality in certain syllables.

Orthography and transcription commonly mark nasalization with diacritics or symbols. A tilde over a vowel (for example, ã, õ) indicates nasalization in many orthographies, and in phonetic transcription nasalization can be shown with a tilde above the vowel or a specific nasalization diacritic. In some languages, nasal sounds interact with surrounding sounds through processes such as assimilation, where neighboring vowels or consonants become more nasal.

Anatomically, nasaal relates to the nasal cavity and the velum, which governs whether air exits through the nose or the mouth. The term is also used in medical or clinical discussions to describe nasal anatomy, resonance, or conditions affecting nasal airflow.

Overall, nasaal covers both the anatomical sense of the nasal region and the linguistic concept of nasal sounds and nasalized speech across languages.