Enrichment of Sociolinguistic Nasality Research with Phonetic Data: Methodological Considerations

Abstract

Research into nasal voice quality can be seen to split itself quite neatly into two streams. In one, we find sociolinguistic studies of nasality, based on impressionistic analyses and the perceptions and opinions of naïve listeners. These studies form the basis of what we know about the social attitudes and motivations behind nasal voice, but often do not clearly define the empirical boundaries of what is and is not nasal. On the other side lies the phonetic study of nasalization. This stream of research has focused on the articulatory and aerodynamic realities of nasalization, developing methods to directly measure airflow through the mouth and nose during speech, and later turning to finding acoustic correlates to accurately represent this ratio of airflow using less intrusive means. Many of these methods are quite robust but have seldom been used to observe non-laboratory speech. Crossover between the aforementioned streams of nasality research is rare but could be extremely beneficial. In this article, established approaches to studying nasal voice in sociolinguistics and phonetics are outlined and evaluated. Existing examples of research combining the two approaches are discussed and suggestions made for future study.