ABSTRACT
The vowel has been defined as a voiced sound in which the air has a free passage through the mouth or through the mouth and nose. When the air escapes wholly through the mouth, the soft palate is raised to touch the back wall of the throat, the vowel then is oral. When the air escapes through both nose and mouth, the soft palate is lowered to allow some of the air to go through the nose. In this case, the vowel is nasalized, means nasal resonance is added to the resonance of the mouth cavity. Nasal vowels occur in many African languages. In the neighbourhood of nasal consonants, the vowels are normally nasalized: this nasalization is due to the influence of the consonant, the soft palate begins to be lowered during the production of the vowel, or the nasality continues into the vowel following a nasal consonant.
