Nose and nasality.

Abstract

The term derived from Latin nasus (nose), seems to serve excellently the purpose of characterizing certain acoustic impressions of abnormal speech. Yet science also asks for a definition of a term. Now either the term nasality suggests a very unclear definition, namely, something abnormal going on in the nose, or the term proves to be wrong after an exact definition of the condition has been found. Observation shows that there are fundamentally two entirely different acoustic impressions that indicate something going on in the nose. Furthermore, normal speech also sometimes produces the impression of something going on in the nose. The latter fact also could suggest the use of the term nasality, and certainly the same term should not be used for normal and abnormal conditions. The impression of something going on in the nose in normal speech can, if well defined, serve as a starting point for