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ABSTRACT
This study explores the study of nasalization in Yekhee. Nasalization is a common phonetic feature which involves the spread of a nasal feature of an inherent nasal segment on a following or preceding oral segment. It is a process by which an oral sound is produced with the velum lowered so that air passes through the nasal and oral cavities.
The focus in this study is to look into the nature of nasalization in Yekhee, in other to investigate the exact number of nasal sounds in the language, to determine the nature of nasal spread and also to know whether or not a given oral vowel segment is affected by progressive or regressive nasal assimilation. Subsequently, the research seeks to find out if there are restriction to vowel nasalization especially with the mid vowels [e] and [o] as attested in Hyman 1974. In other to define accurately the nature of nasalization in yekhee, and to find out about the restrictions an experimental analysis was carried out by the use of a spectrograph.. The results of the experiment were analyzed on a displayed spectrum where the formant frequencies were analyzed to determine nasality of vowels in Yekhee.
The method of data collection comprise of the use of Ibadan four hundred word list. Lexical formatives that have nasal sounds in them were used for the analysis. The data collected was recorded using a recording device from the native speakers of the language.
