Word: nasalities
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...things that strike the English speaking person of today most when studying French are the peculiar vowels, such as u, eu and mute e, and the nasal vowels an, en, in, on and un. These difficulties are not found to so great an extent in the French of the eleventh century. The u sound did exist then and seemed to offer certain difficulties to the Englishman of the day. But the eu, as in coleur, apparently did not exist. In its place, however, are found two other sounds, one something like o, and the other a dipthongal sound not unlike...
...nasal vowels there was a decided difference, but we are unable to state just the amount of it. We know that there were two nasal vowels in old French, a and e before nasal consonants. But there is this striking difference that the n is not swallowed up in the vowel, but that an and en were possibly pronounced after the English fashion...
...England's eclogues-then with nasal twang...
...York to cheer for Harvard, and act as a mascot to the team. He now, after a little mild persuasion, consented to give some vocal selections in his native tongue. "Eringo-bragh" and a song in which every other line terminated in a lengthy, nasal, trumpeting sound, were the favorites, and called forth immense applause and many encores. John then told some of his college experiences, among which was the great and only theatre-party tale, in which John once figured with a crowd of "shtudents." To crown the glory which his little variety then procured for him, he pulled...
...indeed rare when the mind of the bearer is not fastened on some mannerism of the speaker, to the exclusion of the ideas he would make known. These mannerisms may be in the voice or in the action. The former is sepulchral and monotonous or it is unpleasantly nasal, and the thought which the voice should convey to the ear is utterly lost. Again, the speaker denies by his gestures what he has already said in words; he means to affirm, and he shakes his head violently as in negation, or he repels when he means to appeal, - or again...