Korean nasals /m/ and /n/ are generally considered by Korean phoneticians to be hardly different from the corresponding English sounds, but those in word-initial position are often perceived as plosives by native speakers of English. This had been noted by only a few previous observers, and investigated on a very limited scale. In this study, various experimental methods were employed in system...

Previous work on breathiness in Indic languages has focused primarily on the acoustic properties of breathy (also known as aspirated) oral stops in languages like Hindi ([baːl] ‘hair’ vs. [bɦaːl] ‘forehead’) or Bengali ([bati] ‘bowl’ vs. [bɦati] ‘kiln’). However, breathiness in some Indic languages also extends to nasals, as in Marathi ([maːr] ‘beat’ vs. [m ̤ ̤ ̤ ̤aːr] ‘a caste’). It is not clear i...

Tyrannosaurid theropods display several unusual adaptations of the skulls and teeth. Their nasals are fused and vaulted, suggesting that these elements braced the cranium against high feeding forces. Exceptionally high strengths of maxillary teeth in Tyrannosaurus rex indicate that it could exert relatively greater feeding forces than other tyrannosaurids. Areas and second moments of area of th...

In this study we investigated the speaker discriminating potential of nasals and fricatives. In the past, vowel formants were often used for speaker discriminating purposes, but it seems that they are not the best choice for this task. Our study suggests that the spectral moments of nasals and fricatives may discriminate speakers better than vowel formants. Furthermore, we analysed whether the ...

This study aims at investigating the perception and production of the English nasals /m/ and /n/ in syllable-final position by 20 Brazilian EFL learners and 3 native speakers of American English. Perception was assessed by means of both a discrimination and an identification test. Production data was collected by means of a Sentence Reading Test. The results from the perception tests revealed t...

This preliminary study aims at investigating the production and perception of the English nasals /m/ and /n/ in word-final position by a group of 10 intermediate Brazilian EFL learners. Production data was collected by means of a Sentence Reading Test considering preceding vowel as phonological context. Perception was assessed by means of an identification test contrasting native-like vs. nonna...