French nasal vowels: acoustic and articulatory properties

This paper presents data about the articulatory and acoustic properties of French nasal vowels. Data show that many covarying articulations support the phonological contrast between nasal and oral vowels, in addition to the lowering of the velum. The majority of the articulatory adjustments occuring in the oral cavity lead to a lowering of F2. We relate the F2 lowering with the effects of nasal coupling, i.e. the changes in spectral balance due to the loss of energy at higher frequencies.