Scottish Gaelic is sometimes described as having nasalized fricatives (/ṽ/ distinctively, and [f̃, x̃, h̃] etc. triggered by assimilation). However, there  are claims in the phonetic literature that   it  is  not   aerodynamically  possible  to   open   the   velum  for   nasalization  while maintaining frication noise.

We present aerodynamic data from  14 native  Scottish Gaelic  speakers to determine how the  posited nasalized fricatives in this language  are  realized.  Most tokens demonstrate loss of the  nasalization distinction,  but  some productions include nasalization with  the consonant realized as an approximant, nasalization of [h̃], nasalization on the vowel preceding the  consonant, or sequential frication and nasalization, none  of which pose an aerodynamic conflict.  A very  few tokens do contain nasalization and frication at the same time with  a trade-off in airflow.

We also present perceptual evidence showing that Gaelic listeners can hear this distinction significantly better than  chance, but not well.  Thus, instrumental phonetic data from  this language, one  of the  few  in the  world described as having  nasalized fricatives, confirms that   such  a  distinction  is  possible,   but   not   through  producing  strong  nasalization concurrently  with   clear   frication  noise.   Furthermore,  although speakers  most  often neutralize the distinction, when they  maintain it they  do so through a variety of phonetic mechanisms, even within a single language.