Vowel Height and Nasalization
Nasalization may cause a vowel's articulation to shift. However, while nasalization due to the assimilation of a nasal consonant will tend to cause a raising of the vowel's height, phonemically distinctive nasalization tends to lower the vowel. In most languages, vowels of all heights are nasalized indiscriminately, but preference occurs in select few languages, such as to high vowels in Chamorro and low vowels in Thai.
Read more about this topic: Nasal Vowel
Famous quotes containing the words vowel and/or height:
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“The lotus’ stem is as long as the depth of water,
So men’s height is just as great as their inner strength.”
—Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)