Nasal release

In order for the pressure to build up for a plosive release, air is trapped in the oral tract, and for this the velum must be raised. It is possible for the air to be released through the nose, i.e. nasal release. This is produced by lowering the velum while keeping the oral closure. The IPA transcription for nasal release is a superscript [n]: .

Nasal release is used in English as a way to join a sequence of plosive + nasal consonant, as in the word ‘button’. One way that the plosive [t] can be released in this word is with an oral, central release, as in .

The second is a nasal release, as in . You might be able to isolate the  sequence and produce a chain of alveolar plosives with voiceless nasal release, . When you do this the tongue is kept in place against the alveolar ridge. If you pinch your nose, you will not be able to produce it because the air will remain trapped in the nasal cavities.

Note that the place of articulation for the nasal and the plosive are the same, and this is the regular pattern: ‘happen’, , ‘bacon’,  exhibit the same pattern. One ‘weak’ form of the word ‘can’ (whose ‘strong’ form is [kan]) is with a syllabic nasal: ‘I  buy them’. The place of articulation is the same across the plosive+nasal sequence, but the nasal could also have the same place of articulation as the bilabial plosive in ‘buy’, giving e.g. ; this is the pattern we regularly find when the nasal is not syllabic.