The contrast between oral and nasal vowels in French is known to involve secondary cues in addition to nasality; it is an open issue to what extent differences of velum height between the two sets of vowels are preserved in rapid speech. This study compares the velar movements for nasal vowels and consonants; it investigates contextual nasalisation; and it provides new data on how nasalisation is affected by speech rate. Velar position is measured with an electromagnetic articulatograph
(EMA) for two French speakers. Our results
confirm that (i) nasal vowels are produced with a lower
velum height than nasal consonants; (ii) the contrast between nasal and oral vowels is maintained in nasal context; (iii) velum height targets for nasal and oral segments show some overlap, especially sequences of nasal consonant + oral vowels or liquids; and (iv) nasal vowels have a relatively longer duration which is preserved under rapid speech rate.