In the series bum, bun, bung, the final /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ are distinguished by oral closure respectively at the lips, at the alveolar ridge, and at the soft palate. When these words are spoken in isolation, the three final consonants share the features of open nasal cavity, voice, and a gradual decrescendo to silence. With these observations in mind, consider the three words bump, bunt, bunk. In these words the final stops are phonetically released or unreleased, in free variation. What is of interest here is the precise articulatory nature of the unreleased allophones and the preceding nasals. The articulatory formation of the nasals is as in bum, bun, bung. But there is no gradual decrescendo to silence: speech is terminated by an abrupt cessation of voice and an abrupt closure of the nasal cavity by an upward movement of the velum. It is evident that in these articulations the closure of the velum cannot be heard as such. The only acoustic and auditory cue for final /p/,/t/,/k/ in the pronunciations described is the abrupt ending of the preceding nasal. If we adopt the letter [I] for this sudden interruption of a nasal, the following symbolism can be interpreted either auditorily or acoustically: [m] + [I] = /mp/, [n] + [I] = /nt/, [ŋ] + [I] = /ŋk/.