1121: Nasal Consonants Require Oral Movement Jan 3, 2017

Most consonants (and vowels, to be clear) in English are produced by moving air through the mouth; these are called oral consonants and include phonemes like [b], [d] and [g]. To prove it to yourself, you can hold your hand close you tour lips and say something with those consonants like 'bog-dog' and feel the air moves out of your mouth, and not your nose. The phonemes [m], [n] and [ŋ] (like in 'siNG') are the only nasal consonants in English (do the same test with 'non-mom' if you'd like)—out of a total of 16 known nasal consonants—meaning that air exits through the nose after the velum is lowered. However, just because these are nasal consonants doesn't mean that the mouth isn't involved. For instance, if you prepare your mouth as if you were about to produce [b] and then [d], even without producing any audible sound, you would still have to move your tongue and open your lips, and likewise you would move your mouth from getting ready to make an [m] followed by [n], which are nasal. If you, again, prepare you mouth to produce a [d], and then next an [n], you would not move your mouth however. This is because [m], [n] and [ŋ] are the nasalised versions of [b], [d] and [g] respectively. As a side-note, not only is [ŋ] a nasalised [g], but [g] is a voiced equivalent of [k], so it is possible to say 'kangaroo' without really moving your mouth until the [ɹ] (but people probably would for the vowels).

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