nenävokaalivuorovaikutus

Nenävokaalivuorovaikutus refers to the phenomenon in phonetics where the presence of a nasal consonant before or after a vowel influences the pronunciation of that vowel, typically causing it to become nasalized. This means that during the articulation of the vowel, some air is allowed to escape through the nasal cavity in addition to the oral cavity, creating a distinct nasal quality. This interaction is common in many languages, though the degree and conditions under which it occurs can vary.

In languages with nasal vowels, such as French, Portuguese, and Polish, the nasalization of vowels is a phonemic feature, meaning it distinguishes meaning between words. For example, in French, the word "vin" (wine) has a nasal vowel, while "vent" (wind) also has a nasal vowel but with a different articulation. In contrast, English has nasalized allophones of oral vowels before nasal consonants, but this nasalization is generally not distinctive and does not change the meaning of a word. The acoustic properties of nasal vowels differ from oral vowels due to the altered resonance patterns caused by the nasal tract.

The mechanism behind nenävokaalivuorovaikutus involves the velum, the soft palate at the back of the mouth. When the velum is lowered, air can pass through the nasal cavity, leading to nasalization. In the context of a nasal consonant, the velum is already lowered, and this lowering can persist into the following vowel, or the nasal consonant itself can cause a preceding vowel to become nasalized. The reverse can also occur, where a nasal vowel might influence the articulation of a subsequent nasal consonant. This interaction is a significant aspect of phonological description and cross-linguistic comparison.