How to Reduce Nasal Resonance in Speech

By Jennie Parker

Air traveling from your lungs up through your vocal cords and throat into your mouth produces your voice.  As you speak, your soft palate, which is behind the hard palate at the roof of your mouth, rises and lowers, pressing against the back of your throat. When the soft palate is lowered, it allows some air to pass through your nose. In American English, only three sounds require air passing through your nose: /m/, /n/, and “ng” /ŋ/. These are called nasal sounds.

​Try saying the following words while lightly touching the bridge of your nose with your finger tips. You should feel vibration in your nose because these words contain nasal sounds.

mom, nanny, ring, finger, monster

Words in English that do not contain these sounds should not cause vibration in your nose. Try saying these words while, again, touching your nose.

backpack, laptop, lawsuit, traffic, culture

If you’re feeling vibration when saying words that do not contain nasal sounds, then your voice is taking on a nasal-sounding quality. This could be caused by interference from your first language or because you are not producing a full range of motion with your jaw, lips, and tongue.

How can you decrease nasal resonance? The following exercises will help:

1. Explore how the soft palate works with a mirror. While looking into a mirror, open your mouth wide. Make the “k,” “g,” and “ng” sounds, watching your soft palate move.
2. To lower your voice, imagine speaking from your breastbone area. Practice introducing yourself, imagining your voice radiating from your chest.
3. Alternate between nasal and non-nasal sounds.  Hold the sounds, thinking about where the sound is coming from and touching your nose. Try these combinations:
   1. “m” vs. “v”  (“mmmmmmm” vs. “vvvvvvvvvv”)
   2. “n” vs. “l”
   3. “ng” vs. “g”
4. Practice speaking while fully aware of the movement of your jaw, lips, and tongue. The nasalization of non-nasal sounds often occurs when the jaw is not lowered enough or the tongue is not placed properly.  The /æ/ sound, as in apple, is a good sound to start with because it requires a wide mouth and a dropped jaw. Say the /æ/ sound in a mirror. Compare your mouth to that in the image below from the University of Iowa’s Sounds of Speech.  Practice these words, which contain /æ/:  black, drag, flag, chap, tax, bath

As with any new skill, changing your speaking habits takes patience and practice. Once you’re able to say isolated words with non-nasal sounds correctly, try sentences and excerpts of speech. Our transcripts section will help you find materials to practice with.