I'm John Russell.

I was recently watching a classic American movie called Cool Hand.

Luke, I can't tell the whole story here, but the basic idea is that cool hand.

Luke does prison time and he tries to escape.

Ah, lot.

His escape attempts reminded me of certain English continent sounds.

They are called nasal Zales.

I'll explain most of the continent sounds we have explored in this Siris are made by air passing through the mouth.

But there are certain kinds of sounds that involved blocking the air flow from leaving the mouth.

So what does the air do when it is blocked from leaving the mouth?

It escapes through the nose.

The air is determined to escape.

If it can't get out one way, it will get out another way.

Much like a prisoner who is determined to escape in American English.

We have three nasal continent sounds.

Mm mm mm.

M as in man.

Mm.

As in natural.

Mm.

As in escaping those three sounds, All involved blocking the air from escaping through the mouth.

But each sound requires a different kind of blocking.

Mm.

Involves both lips blocking the air from the mouth.

Mm.

Involves the tip of the tongue touching the tooth ridge.

The area maybe a centimeter or two behind your top teeth.

MM involves blocking the air with the back of the tongue.

It touches the area known as the soft palate.

If you ever hear English speakers talk when they have a cold or allergies, you will notice that their nasal sounds mm hmm, become distorted or unusual.

This is because the air is being blocked at the mouth and it cannot escape from the news as well as it normally would.

That's all for today.

Keep up the good work.