Oral Articulation of Nasal Vowels in French

EMA, aerodynamic, and acoustic signals were combined in order to observe lingual and labial articulation of oral and nasal vowels in Northern Metropolitan French (NMF) and Quebec French (QF). Inter-speaker variation observed in oral articulation suggests the importance of motor equivalence in the acoustic dispersion of each vowel system. Inter-dialectal differences observed are suggestive of important characteristics of vowel nasality. When the oral articulation of a nasal vowel enhances the acoustic effect of nasalization, it is possible that the degree of nasopharyngeal coupling can be reduced while still conveying nasality of the vowel. However, when oral articulation minimizes the acoustic effect of nasalization, the emergence of a nasal consonant may convey nasality of the vowel instead. This suggests that inter-dialectal differences in the nasal vowel systems of QF and NMF can be explained, in part, by inherent characteristics of vowel nasality rather than by circumstances specific to the evolutionary development of French.