Phonetic Characteristics

Phonetics is defined as the scientific description of speech sounds. It deals with the physiological processes involved in the production of sounds i.e., Phonetics is concerned with the ways the sounds are produced and the points at which they are articulated. Thus, Phonetics can be considered as a class of natural sciences (Daniel 2011: 1). It is the objective study of sounds of a language (Nasr, 1997: 5).
Speech is produced by the movement of air via the vocal tract, which can be studied in different ways which are : "Articulatory
Phonetics" that is defined as the study of the way speech sounds are produced, "Acoustic phonetics" which deals with the physical properties of speech sounds and "Auditory Phonetics" which studies the perceptual

In this chapter the researcher tries to investigate the phonetic aspects of English and Arabic nasal consonant sounds .
2.2 The Phonetics of English Nasal Consonant Sounds :
2.2.1 The Characteristics of English Nasal Consonants
Nasal is a term used in the phonetic classification of speech sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation . It refers to sounds which are produced while the soft palate is lowered to allow an audible escape of air through the nose (Crystal , 2008
:320) .The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the nose . In order to produce a nasal consonant, the soft palate must be lowered so the air cannot pass through the mouth , but through the nose . The air is prevented by a complete closure at some points in the mouth .The three types of
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closure are:1) bilabial [the two lips] for /m/ as in ‘’ram ‘’ *ræm] ,
2) alveolar [tongue blade against alveolar ridge] for /n/ as in ‘’ran
[ræn] and 3) Velar [back of tongue against the palate] for /ŋ/as in
(ring) [riŋ] .(Roach , 1983 : 45) .
Kennedy (2003:23) expounds that the airflow can be sent