Nasal vowel

Nasalization as a result of the assimilation of a nasal consonant tends to cause a raising of vowel height; phonemically distinctive nasalization tends to lower the vowel. According to a different assessment, high vowels do tend to be lowered, but low vowels tend to be raised instead. In most languages, vowels of all heights are nasalized indiscriminately, but preference occurs in some languages, such as for high vowels in Chamorro and low vowels in Thai. ==Degree of nasalization==

A few languages, such as Palantla Chinantec, contrast lightly nasalized and heavily nasalized vowels. They may be contrasted in print by doubling the IPA diacritic for nasalization: vs . Bickford & Floyd (2006) combine the tilde with the ogonek: vs . (The ogonek is sometimes used in an otherwise IPA transcription to avoid conflict with tone diacritics above the vowels.) ==Origin==

Rodney Sampson described a three-stage historical account, explaining the origin of nasal vowels in modern French. The notation of Terry and Webb is used below, where V, N, and Ṽ (with a tilde above) represent oral vowel, nasal consonant, and nasal vowel, respectively. In the Old French period, vowels became nasalized under the regressive assimilation, as VN > ṼN. In the Middle French period, the realization of the nasal consonant became variable, as VN > Ṽ(N). As the language evolves into its modern form, the consonant is no longer realized, as ṼN > Ṽ. Worldwide there is a tendency for languages to gain nasal vowels through the simplification or lenition of consonantal onsets containing a nasal. Some of these changes are as follows: Where "P" and "Ȼ" represent a plosive and an obstruent, respectively. ==Orthography==

Languages written with Latin script may indicate nasal vowels by a trailing silent n or m, as is the case in French, Portuguese, Lombard (central classic orthography), Bamana, Breton, Occitan and Yoruba. In other cases, they are indicated by diacritics. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, nasal vowels are denoted by a tilde over the symbol for the vowel. The same practice can be found in Portuguese marking with a tilde in diphthongs (e.g. põe) and for words ending in /ɐ̃/ (e.g. manhã, irmã). While the tilde is also used for this purpose in Paraguayan Guaraní, phonemic nasality is indicated by a diaeresis ( ¨ ) in the standardized orthographies of most varieties of Tupí-Guaraní spoken in Bolivia. Polish, Navajo, and Elfdalian use a hook under the letter, called an ogonek, as in ą, ę. The Pe̍h-ōe-jī romanization of Taiwanese Hokkien and Amoy uses a superscript n (aⁿ, eⁿ, ...). In the orthography of the First Grammatical Treatise for the Old Icelandic language, nasal vowels are indicated with a dot above the vowel grapheme: a /ɑ/ vs ȧ /ɑ̃/, ǫ /ɔ/ vs ǫ̇ /ɔ̃/, e /e/ vs. ė /ẽ/ vs ę /ɛ/ vs. ę̇ /ɛ̃/, ı /i/ vs i /ĩ/, o /o/ vs ȯ /õ/, ø /ø/ vs. ø̇ /ø̃/, u /u/ vs u̇ /ũ/, y /y/ vs ẏ /ỹ/; the ogonek instead indicates retracted tongue root or tense vowels, cf. ǫ /ɔ/ vs o /o/ and e /e/ vs. ę /ɛ/. Arabic scripts Indo-Aryan Nasalization in Arabic-based scripts of languages such as Urdu, as well as Punjabi and Saraiki, commonly spoken in Pakistan, and by extension India, is indicated by employing the nasal vowel, a dotless form of the Arabic letter nūn () or the letter marked with the maghnūna diacritic: respectively , always occurring word finally, or in the medial form, called "nūn ghunna". In Sindhi, nasalization is represented with the standard nun letter. Classical Arabic Nasalized vowels occur in Classical Arabic but not in contemporary speech or Modern Standard Arabic. There is no orthographic way to denote the nasalization, but it is systematically taught as part of the essential rules of tajwid, used to read the Qur'an. Nasalization occurs in recitation, usually when a final nūn is followed by a yāʾ (). Indic scripts The Brahmic scripts used for most Indic languages mark nasalization with the anusvāra (◌ं), homophonically used for homorganic nasalization in a consonant cluster following the vowel) or the anunāsika (◌ँ) diacritic (and its regional variants). ==Languages==

The following languages use phonemic nasal vowels: ==See also==