--- In phoNet@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@n...> wrote:
>
> This clarification raises one niggle, not relevant to my original
> issue. Are prenasalised stops oral stops?

Terms such as "oral stop" and "nasal stop" are in effect
just shorthand forms. To be completely accurate, a so-
called "oral stop" is actually an oral stop coordinated
with a simultaneous velic stop blocking the escape of
air through the nasal cavity, while a so-called "nasal
stop" is an oral stop to no less degree, only differing
in having an open velum, and thus including a secondary
nasal co-articulation, what J.C.Catford calls a "nareal
approximant".

So the answer to your question depends on how precisely
one chooses to use the term "oral stop". A prenasalized
stop does involve a complete closure of some section of
the oral tract from beginning to end.

David