What Do Nasal Sounds Look Like? Sonorant Acoustics

How can we tell apart different sonorant consonants - your [n]s and [m]s, [l]s and [ɹ]s? What do their sound waves look like? In this week's episode, we take a look at the acoustics of nasal and approximant consonants: how opening up your nose influences your speech, how close some consonants are to being vowels, and why it can be hard for some people to tell apart the English l and r.
This is Topic #80!
This week's tag language: Malagasy!
The spectrogram for [ɴ] didn't quite turn out how we would have liked, although the science behind it still fits. For more on why, check here: thelingspace.tu...
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Sources:
Much of the information in this episode came from Henry Rogers's book The Sounds of Language, and Kenneth Stevens's book Acoustic Phonetics.
Looking forward to next week!

[@EthanMagnuson]

I love this channel! I can't believe you guys have only 15,000 subscribers!

[@thelingspace]

Thanks so much! Well, if you like what we do, please tell people, and hopefully we'll grow more. DFTBA! ^_^

[@happyghost8311]

I think all sonorants can be pronounced as syllabic consonants, like the "l" in "battle", "n" in "didn't" or "m" in "rythm" (though some people might think of them as schwa). In my language, Czech "r" and "l" are syllabic when in a middle or final position, surrounded by consonants only. For example: "metr" (meaning: meter) sounds something like "meh-ter" (IPA: [mɛ.tr̩]), and "trvá" (meaning: lasts) sounds like "ter-vah" (IPA: [tr̩.va:]). In Polish (a related language) however, syllabic consonants don't occur. So "metr" (meter) sounds like "metr" (IPA: [mɛtr̥], 1 syllable only), and "trwa" (lasts) sounds like "trvah" (IPA: [tr̥fa])

[@soufianeelallam6835]

I'm a big fan of yours.Thank you so much for the amazing video.I wish you would make some more videos on phonology and syntax.Anyhow, I have an off-topic question ! what is the actual difference between alveo-palatal,palato-alveolar and post-alveolar sounds ? Thanks beforehand !

[@robert_wigh]

Thank you for making this video, Moti Libermann, Adèle-Elise Prévost and all the others at _the Ling Space_! So, sonorants are the opposite of obstructants because sonorants have a continuous air flow that is not chopped off and this is visible in the scans. They can be divided: nasals, where the air flow goes though the nasal cabinet, and approximate, which are like gliding sounds being almost like vowels. How about nasalized vowels like [ã] or [õ]? How do we tell does apart from regular [a] and [o]? What are their characteristics? I as far as I understand, some languages like French and Portuguese, differentiates between nasalized vowels and non-nasalized vowels. Also, can approximates be nasalized? Can there be such sounds as [w̃] and [ɰ̃]? In that case, what stops them from being classified as fully fetched nasals?

[@MK-je7kz]

I have been wondering which three to five languages (of, lets say, over million speakers) would provide a child the widest range of sounds to understand as much of the Worlds languages as possible? For example one tonal language, like Chinese, other with lots of sounds, like English, a language with double consonant, like Italian, etc.

[@517moe]

I just found your channel and immediately subscribed!! Love the content:) I wish you spoke in a lower, or at least a narrower range...I don't know if it's just me but I find the way you hit those higher notes frequently when you speak kind of distracting.

[@linguaphilly]

Huh, that's funny. Personally I always hate it when people talk within a narrow range of tone, like the other day I gave this guy in class feedback on a presentation including this very critique, cause talking in too narrow a range makes it way easier to lose attention/interest. I guess it's a personal taste :p

[@thelingspace]

Glad you like the videos! For the rest, I have periodically tried to pitch my voice a bit lower, but then I kind of forget. Might be I'll try getting this back onto the filming list. It's worth experimenting with. ^_^

[@linguaphilly]

Do many languages differentiate between central and lateral airflow? Looking at the graph, you'd say they would, right? It's pretty crazy how such totally different sounds sound exactly the same in my ears lol

[@thelingspace]

Yep, central vs. lateral is a pretty common distinction in language! Lots of languages have it. And it's not just with approximants - you can have lateral fricatives, too, like in Welsh, for example. So you block the air going down the centre of the mouth, and lower the sides, but only a little, so you can get that hissing sound. But at the side rather than through the middle! If you want to hear what it sounds like, check out this IPA chart with sounds attached: web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm And yeah, that's the power of phonology! Once your grammar's decided multiple sounds should get grouped together, you really just don't notice they're different. It's pretty amazing. ^_^

[@AelwynMr]

Oh, you looked much better with the beard! (also: FIRST)

[@JayFolipurba]

It's the 2020s, I'm watching these on 1.5 times speed

[@zeropoints5040]

#TeamBeard

[@nestycb6702]

The outfit representing "flow" is such a nice reference. Beastie Boys like

[@ClaireGorman25]

Am I right in thinking we have a Gilmore Girls fan here?

[@rzeka]

like this ~

[@thelingspace]

Thanks! ^_^

[@rzeka]

The Ling Space Haha, I was answering the question in the title with an IPA diacritic. But I like the video too!

[@thelingspace]

Haha, I get it now! Awesome. Well, thanks either way! ^_^

[@verdakorako4599]

I tried voicing h yesterday and it was an e or a sound.

[@thelingspace]

So here's the interesting thing about that: [h] is essentially just a voiceless vowel. All you're doing is constricting the airflow at the vocal folds, right? And that leaves it so that your tongue and lips can get to configuring themselves for the next sound while you're [h]-ing. Which means usually that you're shaping whatever the following vowel is during the [h]. If you voice the [h], you should just get that vowel you're making. And that's why that happens. ^_^

[@verdakorako4599]

bona thanks that is just what I needed to know about that h.

[@rosampa1980]

Just speak Portuguese!!

[@ewuramaquayson3182]

very educative but you spoke too fast

[@keemaquino421]

Fast talking

[@keemaquino421]

Too fast that's why i cannot feel the lesson

[@rhubarb4601]

Please don't change the way you speak. it's especial and imnotizing. Spanish chap learning English.