Definição e Significado de "nasalization"

What is "nasalization"?

Nasalization is a phonological process where a vowel or consonant sound is produced with airflow through the nose, resulting in a nasal quality. This can occur when a vowel is followed by a nasal consonant, such as /m/, /n/, or /ŋ/, causing the vowel to take on a nasal quality. For example, in French, the vowel sound in the word "pain," meaning bread, is nasalized due to the following nasal consonant. Nasalization is significant in linguistics because it affects pronunciation and can change the meaning of words, illustrating how sound quality can interact with phonetic context in different languages.