Nasalization

Nasalization occurs when air flows through the nose instead of just the mouth during speech, affecting how sounds are produced. This happens when the velum (the soft part of the roof of the mouth) lowers to open the nasal passages, allowing sound vibrations to resonate in the nasal cavity. As a result, nasalized sounds have a nasal quality, like the "m" in "man" or the "n" in "nice." Nasalization can be a natural part of speech in many languages and can also occur due to nasal congestion from a cold or allergies.