Vowel Nasalization in American English: Acoustic Variability Due to Phonetic Context

This study quantifies acoustic variation of vowel nasalization arising from phonetic context in American English with an emphasis on carryover contexts. While qualitative articulatory trajectories and phonetic descriptions suggest that a vowel is nasalized in carryover contexts, few acoustic studies have examined this issue. Our acoustic analyses investigate the vowel /i/ and show that: (1) a vowel can be nasalized with at least one adjacent nasal consonant, even if the nasal consonant is pre-vocalic; (2) vowels with nasal consonants on both sides (NVN) do not guarantee more vowel nasalization.