Date:  Fri, 11 Jul 1997 15:09:36 -0400
From:  Ron Butters <RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: so who tightened your velopharyngeal portal?

Garland writes:

>We're talking about an alveolar nasal with the rapidity of
>articulation that makes it a tap or flap rather than a stop. >Thus, for
me,"sentence" has a nasal tap/flap while "penance" >has a nasal stop. For
some people, this phenomenon might be a >nasalized vowel and a "regular"
(non-nasal) alveolar tap, but >for me it's definitely a nasal tap.

Given (I think that this is true) that most speakers of American English keep
their velopharyngeal ports open unless they HAVE to close them, aren't all AE
flaps more or less "nasal(ized)"?