Nasal consonants in esophageal speech

Nasalization of nasal consonants was measured using the ratio of a nasal accelerometer signal amplitude to air-borne microphone signal amplitude. Utterances produced by 3 esophageal speakers were studied. Word position (and time following air injection) of the nasal consonants was varied. Degree of nasal resonance was dependent on word position, with significantly higher values for word-final than for word-initial position.