Nasality overlap in French rhotics

Overview & Synopsis

This study investigates nasalization patterns in French, with a particular focus on rhotics. Nasalization arises when nasal airflow, due to velum lowering in nasal consonants, overlaps with adjacent segments, an effect modulated by both perceptual and linguistic factors. Anticipatory nasalization tends to involve greater velopharyngeal opening (VPO) than carryover nasalization, with context-dependent peaks in VPO reflecting differences in nasal airflow. Fricatives generally resist nasalization, as maintaining both friction and nasal airflow is biomechanically and perceptually challenging. In contrast, French liquids, and especially rhotics, exhibit more anticipatory nasalization. The case of rhotics is particularly complex, as combining nasal airflow with fricative-like friction involves articulatory constraints. Despite extensive work on nasalization in French, the nasal behavior of rhotics remains underexplored. French nasal coarticulation is generally limited: vowels preceding nasal consonants are typically realized as oral, with nasalization emerging more from physiological timing than from intentional articulation. While nasalization is more salient in vowels, rhotics may exhibit subtle, context-dependent nasalization patterns. This study hypothesizes that rhotic nasalization is non-deliberate, shaped by surrounding phonetic context, and aligns with a nasalization continuum: oral sounds < contextually nasal vowels < nasal consonants < nasal vowels < pauses.