The voiced alveolar nasal is a type of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
al sound used in numerous spoken
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
that represents
dental,
alveolar, and
postalveolar nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
is , and the equivalent
X-SAMPA
The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, a ...
symbol is
n
.
The vast majority of languages have either an alveolar or dental nasal. There are a few languages that lack either sound but have , such as
Yoruba,
Palauan, and colloquial
Samoan (however, these languages all have . An example of a language without and is
Edo). There are some languages (e.g.
Rotokas) that lack both and .
True dental consonants are relatively uncommon. In the
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
,
Dravidian, and
Australian languages, ''n'' is often called "dental" in the literature. However, the rearmost contact, which gives a consonant its distinctive sound, is actually alveolar or
denti-alveolar. The difference between the Romance languages and English is not so much where the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth but the part of the tongue that makes contact. In English, it is the tip of the tongue (such sounds are termed
apical
Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to:
*Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology)
*Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...
), but in the Romance languages, it is the flat of the tongue just above the tip (such sounds are called
laminal).
However, there are languages with true apical (or less commonly laminal) dental ''n''. It is found in the
Mapuche language of South America, where it is actually
interdental. A true dental generally occurs
allophonically before in the languages that have it, as in English ''tenth''. Similarly, a denti-alveolar allophone occurs in languages that have denti-alveolar stops, as in Spanish ''cinta''.
Some languages contrast laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar nasals. For example, in the
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
pronunciation of ''Nārāyanan'', the first ''n'' is dental, the second is retroflex, and the third alveolar.
A postalveolar nasal occurs in a number of
Australian Aboriginal languages, including
Djeebbana and
Jingulu.
Features
Features of the voiced alveolar nasal:
* There are four specific variants of :
**
Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper
teeth, termed respectively ''
apical
Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to:
*Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology)
*Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...
'' and ''
laminal''.
**
Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the
alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
**
Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively ''apical'' and ''laminal''.
**
Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively ''apical'' and ''laminal''.
Occurrence
Dental or denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Postalveolar
Variable
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{IPA navigation
Alveolar consonants
Dental consonants
Postalveolar consonants
Nasal consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Voiced consonants