| Voiced uvular nasal | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɴ | |||
| IPA number | 120 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ɴ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0274 | ||
| X-SAMPA | N\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
Avoiced uvular nasal is a type ofconsonantal sound, used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɴ⟩, asmall capital version of the Latin lettern.
Uvular nasals are rare sounds cross-linguistically, occurring as a phoneme in only a small handful of languages. It is complex in terms of articulation, and also highly marked, as it is inherently difficult to produce a nasal articulation at the uvular point of contact.[1] This difficulty can be said to account for the marked rarity of this sound among the world's languages.[1]
A uvular nasal most commonly occurs as a conditionedallophone of other sounds,[2] for example as an allophone of/n/ before auvular plosive as inQuechua, or as an allophone of/q/ before another nasal consonant as inSelkup. However, it has been reported to exist as an independent phoneme in a small number of languages. Examples include theKlallam language,Tagalog language, theTawellemmet andAyr varieties ofTuareg Berber,[3] the Rangakha dialect ofKhams Tibetan,[4] at least two dialects of theBai language,[5][6] the Papuan languageMapos Buang,[7] and theChamdo languages:Lamo (Kyilwa dialect),Larong sMar (Tangre Chaya dialect),Drag-yab sMar (Razi dialect).[8] InMapos Buang and in theBai dialects, it contrasts phonemically with a velar nasal.[5][6][7] In the Chamdo languages it contrasts phonemically with/ŋ/,/ŋ̊/, and/ɴ̥/.[8] The syllable-final nasal inJapanese was traditionally said to be realized as a uvular nasal when utterance-final, but empirical studies have disputed this claim.[9]
There is also apre-uvular nasal[10] in some languages such asYanyuwa, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical uvular nasal, though not as front as the prototypical velar nasal. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ɴ̟⟩ (advanced ⟨ɴ⟩), ⟨ŋ̠⟩ or ⟨ŋ˗⟩ (both symbols denote aretracted ⟨ŋ⟩).
Features of a voiced uvular nasal:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Many speakers | aangenaam | [ˈɑːɴχənɑːm] | 'pleasant' | Allophone of/n/ before/χ/; realized as[n] in formal speech. SeeAfrikaans phonology |
| Arabic | Standard | انقلاب /inqilāb | [ˌɪɴ.qɪˈlaːb] | 'coup' | Allophone of/n/ before/q/; more commonly realized as[n]. |
| Armenian | անխելք /ankhelk´ | [ɑɴˈχɛlkʰ] | 'brainless' | Allophone of/n/ before a uvular consonant in informal speech. | |
| Bai | Enqi dialect[6] | [ɴa˨˩] | 'to walk' | Phonemic, and contrasts with/ŋ/. | |
| Luobenzhuo dialect[5] | 我 /nò | [ɴɔ˦˨] | 'I' | Phonemic, and contrasts with/ŋ/. | |
| Bashkir | нaң /ناڭ /nañ | [nɑɴ] | 'wilderness' | Allophone of/ŋ/ in back vowel contexts. | |
| Dutch | Netherlandic | aangenaam | [ˈaːɴχəˌnaːm] | 'pleasant' | Allophone of/n/ and/ŋ/ before[χ], in dialects that use it. Can be realized as[n] in formal speech. |
| English | Northumbrian | [example needed] | [11] | ||
| Georgian | ზინყი /zinq'i | [ziɴqʼi] | 'hip joint' | Allophone of/n/ beforeuvular consonants. | |
| Iñupiaq | North Slope | iḷisaġniaqtuq | [iʎsaʁɴiaqtuq] | 'he will study' | Corresponds to[ʁn] in other dialects. |
| Inuvialuktun | namunganmun | [namuŋaɴmuɴ] | 'to where?' | Allophonic; seeInuit phonology | |
| Japanese | 本 /hon | [hoɴ] | 'book' | Coda allophone of /N/, the syllabic nasal. SeeJapanese phonology. | |
| Kalaallisut | paarngorpoq | [pɑːɴːɔpːɔq] | 'crawls' | Occurrence and phonemic status depend on the dialect. | |
| Kazakh | жаңа /جاڭا /jaña | [ʒɑɴɑ] | 'new' | Allophone of/ŋ/ in back vowel contexts. | |
| Klallam | sqəyáyŋəxʷ | [sqəˈjajɴəxʷ] | 'big tree' | Contrasts with aglottalized form, but not with/ŋ/. | |
| Lamo | [ɴʷɚ̰˥] | 'five' | Contrasts with/ŋ/,/ŋ̊/, and/ɴ̥/. | ||
| Malto | तेंग़े | [t̪eɴɢe] | 'to tell' | /ŋʁ/ is phonetically[ɴɢ]./ʁ,ŋʁ/ is/h/ in Southern and Western dialects. SeeMalto#Phonology. | |
| Mapos Buang[7] | alunġ | [aˈl̪uɴ] | 'widower' | Phonemic, and contrasts with/ŋ/. | |
| Mongolian | монгол /ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ /mongol | [ˈmɔɴ.ɢəɮ] | 'Mongolia' | Allophone of/ŋ/. | |
| Okinawan[12] | ʻnnmee | [ʔɴ̩ːmeː] | 'grandmother' | Post-glottal allophone of/n/. | |
| Quechua | Peruvian | sunqu | [ˈs̠oɴqo] | 'heart' | Allophone of/n/. |
| Spanish[13] | enjuto | [ẽ̞ɴˈχuto̞] | 'shriveled' | Allophone of/n/. SeeSpanish phonology | |
| Turkmen | jaň | [dʒɑɴ] | 'bell' | Allophone of/ŋ/ next to back vowels. | |
| Yanyuwa[14] | wangulu | [waŋ̠ulu] | 'adolescent boy' | Pre-uvular; contrasts with post-palatal[ŋ˖].[14] | |
