Describe the process of nasalization in speech sounds.

Nasalization is a phonetic process that occurs when a sound is produced with the velum lowered, allowing air to pass through the nasal cavity. This results in the sound being produced with a nasal quality.

During nasalization, the velum, which is the soft part at the back of the roof of the mouth, is lowered, allowing the air to flow through the nasal cavity. This is in contrast to oral sounds, where the velum is raised, directing the airflow solely through the oral cavity.

Nasalization can occur in various speech sounds, including vowels and consonants. When a vowel is nasalized, the sound is produced with both oral and nasal resonance. This is typically indicated by a tilde (~) or a nasal diacritic above the vowel symbol in phonetic transcription.

Consonants can also undergo nasalization, particularly nasal consonants such as /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/. These sounds are produced by completely blocking the oral cavity and allowing the air to pass through the nasal cavity. Nasalization can also affect non-nasal consonants in certain contexts, such as when they occur before or after nasal sounds.

Nasalization can be contrastive in some languages, meaning that it can change the meaning of a word. For example, in English, the words "pin" and "bin" are distinguished by the nasalization of the vowel sound. In other languages, nasalization may not be contrastive but still occur as a natural part of the phonetic system.

Overall, nasalization is a process in which sounds are produced with air passing through the nasal cavity, resulting in a nasal quality. It can occur in both vowels and consonants and may be contrastive or non-contrastive depending on the language.