Nasality

Nasality is a term used to describe the addition of the nasal and paranasal spaces to speech sound production. Most speech sounds are oral, so they [Page 1221]are produced with the velum (soft palate) elevated and the velopharyngeal sphincter (the soft palate and the nasopharyngeal aspect of the pharyngeal walls) closed. Nasal speech sounds are produced by lowering the velum and opening the velopharyngeal sphincter so that sound and airflow can enter the nose. Nasalization is a normal phenomenon in speech production. In contrast to normal nasality, pathologically excessive nasal contribution to speech sound production due to velopharyngeal sphincter dysfunction is called hypernasality (sometimes also referred to as rhinophonia aperta). The pathological absence of nasality in speech due to blocked nasal passages is called hyponasality ...