Nasal emission is the abnormal passing of oral air through a palatal cleft, or from some other type of velopharyngeal inadequacy (VPI)

Velopharyngeal inadequacy

Velopharyngeal inadequacy is a malfunction of a velopharyngeal mechanism.The velopharyngeal mechanism is responsible for directing the transmission of sound energy and air pressure in both the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. When this mechanism is impaired in some way, the valve does not fully...

, during the production of a consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...

 that requires a buildup of oral air pressure for proper pronunciation

Pronunciation

Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....

, such as /p/ or /s/. The escaping air tends to reduce the oral air pressure and impede the proper production of the consonant. Secondary effects sometimes noted with nasal emission are the development of improper compensatory pronunciation habits, including using a very soft voice that uses less breath pressure. Nasal emission can be detected by a number of simple techniques, such as looking for the fogging of a mirror held under the nares or measured more definitively by means of a nasal pneumotachograph, as in the Perci-Sar system or the NEM system system from Glottal Enterprises.

The measurement of nasal emission in consonants is linked with the measurement of nasalance in vowels under the term nasometry

Nasometry

Nasometry refers to measurement of the modulation of the area of the velopharyngeal opening, using movements of the velum and pharyngeal walls, in speech and singing. The velopharyngeal opening connects the oral air passageway with the nasal air passageway...

.

See also

• Nasalization
  Nasalization
  In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
  
  
• Nasalance
• nasometry
  Nasometry
  Nasometry refers to measurement of the modulation of the area of the velopharyngeal opening, using movements of the velum and pharyngeal walls, in speech and singing. The velopharyngeal opening connects the oral air passageway with the nasal air passageway...
  
  
• Perci-Sar
• Glottal Enterprises NVS System