Nasal release

In phonetics, a nasal release is a special way sounds are made when a stop consonant changes into a nasal sound. This happens when air flows through the nose instead of the mouth during speech. For example, in English words like catnip, the “t” sound can become a nasal release, written in special symbols as [tⁿ].

In some English words, like sudden, the tongue used to touch the roof of the mouth twice for two different sounds. But many people today make just one touch, letting the “d” sound flow right into the “n” sound, written as [ˈsʌdⁿn̩]. While this small detail doesn’t change the meaning of words in English, it can be very important in other languages where such sounds help distinguish meanings. Nasal releases are studied using the International Phonetic Alphabet, a system that helps write down all the sounds people make when speaking.

In Atlantic-Congo languages

The Gãã language of Nigeria includes special sounds where consonants change into nasal sounds. For example, it has words like "kpŋmɛ̃" meaning "all" and "gbŋmáp" meaning "to crawl". These sounds are made by letting air flow through the nose when pronouncing certain consonants.

Prestopped nasals

Some languages have special sounds called prestopped nasals. These happen when the mouth is closed and the nose is open, but the timing of these actions is not the same. In English words like sudden, you can hear this nasal release.

The Slavic languages often have prestopped nasals, as in the Russian word for "day." These sounds are also found in Australia, such as in the language Eastern Arrernte.

There is little difference between prenasalized stops and clusters of sounds like /nd/. The difference is more about how language experts describe the sounds rather than how they actually sound.

Final consonants with nasal release

Some languages, like Vietnamese and Malay, usually don’t make a sound when ending a word. But they actually have a quick, quiet nasal sound at the end of words. This happens because all the ending sounds in these languages are quiet and soft.

In Wolof, this quiet ending sound can change the meaning of words, making it important to notice.