Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1884 — Talking Through the Nose. [ARTICLE]

Talking Through the Nose.

“Talking through the nose " when a person has a cold, is in reality talking with the nose so stopped that lesc rather than more than the naual quantity of vibrating air can pass through the nasal cavity. In producing certain artieulate sounds— those which occur in English are represented by m, n and ng —all the vocal air escapes from the pharynx by the nose. The nasal air passage has the general form of the resonator, and there can be no doubt but that it has a corresponding influence, and that the o nds produceu by the air passing through it are strengthened by its resonance. The larger the nasal cavity the more powerful the resonance, and consequently the re-enforcement experienced by the tone. Sounds uttered wit a the nasal resonance, particularly the na-al vowels, are fuller and more ample than the same sounds when strengthened by the resonance of the cavity of the mouth, and it is for this reason that third-rate tragic actors like to give a nasal resonance to all the vowels in the pathetio speeches of their heroic parts. The resonance of the nasal < avity plays a part also in the formation of non-artieu-late sounds; then, however, appearing only as a re-enforcement of the resonance of the cavity of the mouth. The directly excited nasal resonance sometimes plays an immediate part in the formation of all art culate sounds, producing the nasal “twang. ' But the general conception of this mode of speaking is by no means scientifically correct, every species of pronunciation in which the nasal element asserts itself with undue promi u nce being called “talking through the nose.” It may, however, arise fro n two unlike causes; firstly, from a stoppage of the nasal cavity; or secondly, from incomplete closure of the posterior entrance to this cavity. If the nasal cavity is obstructed, as when a child’s nose is pinched and he is told to say “pudding,” an accumulation of air forms in the hack of the mouth, being unable to escape through the nose, and in the end is obliged to find exit through the mouth. the resonance is also altered, and the nasal sounds are, therefore, formed imperfectly and falsely. The same disturbance is produced by the partial obstru tion of the nasa cavity which is experienced from the swollen condition of the mucous membrane, and from its increased secretion, during a “ccld in the head.”— F. A. Fernald, in Popular Science Monthly..