# Which is the most nasal language? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780 "2020-07-19T23:44:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/1 "2020-07-19T23:44:24Z")
I’ve been fascinated by language all my life. Some languages use a lot of nasal sounds (like French gn, Spanish n with tilde). Hindu seems to use it an awful lot. And there are many Indian languages, some from Persian or Arabic. What are the most nasally languages? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/2 "2020-07-20T02:49:40Z")
I believe women nasalize languages they speak, while men do not. Particularly Spanish and east Asian languages. My theory is that it helps penetrate the background noise of the busy marketplace. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/3 "2020-07-20T02:52:37Z")
Is that true? Why do women nasalize more? ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/4 "2020-07-20T03:19:40Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Hindu seems to use it an awful lot. Hindu is not a language. Loosely translated it is the religion of many Indians. Hindi is a language mostly spoken in central and western India and it is not Nasal. > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > And there are many Indian languages, some from Persian or Arabic None of the Indian languages, I know, are from Persian or Arabic. Most Indian languages derive from Sanskrit which has the same roots as European languages (hence the term Indo-European Languages). Sure there are Arabic and Persian words and phrases incorporated in many Indian languages but that is true for many languages. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/5 "2020-07-20T07:50:27Z")
You could regard Urdu as “Persianized” to some extent, also more generally in a gross sense Persian, Hindustani, and Sanskrit are all Indo-Iranian languages. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/6 "2020-07-20T11:49:45Z")
“Most nasal” is vague. The highest number of phonemic nasal consonants/vowels? With the highest frequency in actual use? Nonphonemic? > [Yanyuwa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanyuwa_language) is highly unusual in that it has a seven-way distinction between [m], [n̪], [n], [ɳ], [ṉ] ([palato-alveolar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palato-alveolar_consonant)), [ŋ̟] ([front velar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar_consonant)), and [ŋ̠] ([back velar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar_consonant)). This may be the only language in existence that contrasts nasals at seven distinct points of articulation. > These languages use phonemic nasal vowels: > […] > [Paicî](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paic%C3%AE_language) (an unusually large number of nasal vowels) > **[Nasal consonant](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_consonant)** > > In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majority of consonants are oral consonants. Examples of nasals in English are \[n\], \[ŋ\] and \[m\], in words such as nose, bring and mouth. Nasal occlusives are nearly universal in human languages. There are also other kinds of nasal consonants in some languages. > Nearl... > **[Nasal vowel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_vowel)** > > A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ (ⓘ) or Amoy \[ɛ̃\]. By contrast, oral vowels are produced without nasalization. > Nasalized vowels are vowels under the influence of neighbouring sounds. For instance, the \[æ\] of the word hand is affected by the following nasal consonant. In most languages, vowels adjacent to nasal consonants are produced pa... ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/7 "2020-07-20T12:52:46Z")
I don’t know which language and it’s likely to be several but I noticed that people from south-east Asian countries are extremely nasal. (Laos, Cambodia, etc.) It sounds like everything they say is in the nose and not much coming from the throat or chest. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/8 "2020-07-20T15:19:11Z")
Hindi is very nasal. Almost every plural is nasalized, and without that it could be singular. I’m blaming auto-correct for changing it to Hindu, which is a religion and not a language. Hindi contains quite a few words from Persian and Arabic. But is not “from” these languages. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/9 "2020-11-17T08:39:30Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > You could regard Urdu as “Persianized” to some extent, also more generally in a gross sense Persian, Hindustani, and Sanskrit are all Indo-Iranian languages. According to Wikipedia (and in my experience) Urdu (the lingua franca in Pakistan) and Hindi (lingua franca in northern India) are both standard forms of Hindustani which is itself a synthetic language of many languages in the region, including a significant portion of Persian and Arabic words. My wife (Indian) and her best friend (Pakistani) converse in their native languages with absolutely no difficulty. They are speaking essentially the same language. I have always wondered if there are other examples of one language with two different written scripts? But back to the OP, yes, Hindu-Urdu is very nasal. That is quite clear if you listen to some of the vocal music. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/10 "2020-11-17T10:52:29Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > I have always wondered if there are other examples of one language with two different written scripts? Serbo-Croatian instantly comes to mind. Kazakh. You can see how political decrees come into it. If you include historical scripts, you can come up with many examples, like Turkish, Vietnamese, Mongolian, many others. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/11 "2020-11-17T11:04:02Z")
ETA there is still one daily Urdu newspaper written by hand! Up until quite recently, there were no computer plugins available to handle complex Nastaliq calligraphy acceptably, especially in Urdu. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/12 "2020-11-17T15:58:53Z")
Regarding Spanish… Its neighbor, Portuguese, is much more nasal. The tilde specifically indicates nasal; “São Paulo” is supposed to have a solid nasal sound. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-nasal-language/915780/13 "2020-11-17T18:21:02Z")
French, !Kung, etc. have nasal vowels too, but what is the frequency of their use? We need some data to figure out the contenders for “most nasal language”. E.g., in French words like un, en, on, non, mon are very common.