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| Nasal release | |
|---|---|
| ◌ⁿ | |
| IPA number | 425 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ⁿ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+207F |
Inphonetics, anasal release is the release of astop consonant into anasal. Such sounds are transcribed in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet with superscript nasal letters, for example as[tⁿ] in Englishcatnip[ˈkætⁿnɪp]. In English words such assudden in which historically the tongue made separate contacts with the alveolar ridge for the/d/ and/n/,[ˈsʌdən], many speakers today make only one contact. That is, the/d/ is released directly into the/n/:[ˈsʌdⁿn̩]. Although this is a minor phonetic detail in English (in fact, it is commonly transcribed as havingno audible release:[ˈkæt̚nɪp],[ˈsʌd̚n̩]), nasal release is more important in some other languages.
In some languages, such consonants may occur before vowels and are calledprestopped nasals.
Prestopped nasals andprenasalized stops occur when theoral cavity is closed and thenasal cavity is opened by lowering thevelum, but the timing of both events does not coincide. A prenasalized stop starts out with a lowered velum that raises during the occlusion, much like the[nd] incandy. A postnasalized stop or prestopped nasal begins with a raised velum that lowers during the occlusion. That causes an audible nasal release, as in Englishsudden.
TheSlavic languages are most famous for having (non-phonemic) prestopped nasals. That can be seen in place names such as theDniester River. The Russian word for "day", for example, is inflectedдень, дня, дни, дней[dʲenʲ,dnʲa,dnʲi,dnʲej],'day, day's, days, days''.
Prestopped nasals area also found inAustralia.Eastern Arrernte has both prenasalized stops and prestopped nasals, but it does not have word-initialconsonant clusters. Compare[mʷaɻə] "good" (with nasal stop),[ᵐbʷaɻə] "make" (with prenasalized stop),[ᵖmʷaɻə] "coolamon" (with prestopped nasal).
There is little or no phonetic difference between a "prenasalized stop" (/ⁿd/) and a cluster (/nd/). It is similar for prestopped nasals. The difference is essentially one of phonological analysis. For example, languages with word-initial/nd/ (or/ⁿd/) but no otherword-initial clusters, will often be analyzed as having a unitary prenasalized stop rather than a cluster of nasal + stop. For some languages, it is claimed that a difference exists (often medially) between/ⁿd/ and/nd/. Even in such cases, however, alternative analyses are possible.Ladefoged andMaddieson[1] investigated one such claimed case and concluded that the two sounds were better analyzed as /nd/ and /nnd/, respectively.
However, some languages such asVietnamese andMalay, which are generally described as havingno audible release in final stops, actually have a short nasal release[citation needed] in such cases. Since all final stops in these two languages arevoiceless, the nasal release is voiceless as well.
Although the difference is commonly chalked up toaspiration, final nasal release is contrastive inWolof:[2]
| Nasal release | Aspirated release | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| [lapᵐ̥] | 'to drown' | [lapʰ] | 'to be thin' |
| [ɡɔkᵑ̊] | 'bridle rope' | [ɡɔkʰ] | 'white chalk' |
