Uvular nasal

Uvular nasal
ɴ
IPA number	120
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɴ
Unicode (hex)	U+0274
X-SAMPA	N\
Kirshenbaum	n"
Braille
Sound
source · help

The uvular nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɴ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter n.

For a voiced pre-uvular nasal (also called post-velar), see voiced velar nasal.

Features

Features of the uvular nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Because the consonant is also nasal, the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.
• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Many speakers	aangenaam	[ˈɑːɴχənɑːm]	'pleasant'	Allophone of /n/ before /χ/; realized as [n] in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology
Armenian		անխելք	[ɑɴˈχɛlkʰ]	'brainless'	Allophone of /n/ before a uvular consonant in informal speech.
Dutch	Netherlandic	aangenaam	[ˈaːɴχəˌnaːm]	'pleasant'	Allophone of /n/ and /ŋ/ in dialects that use [χ]. Can be realized as [n] and [ŋ] instead, especially in formal speech.
Georgian		ზინყი	[ziɴqʼi]	'hip joint'	Allophone of /n/.
Inuit	Inuvialuktun	namunganmun	[namuŋaɴmuɴ]	'to where?'	See Inuit phonology
Japanese		日本/nihon	[n̠ʲihõ̞ɴ]	'Japan'	See Japanese phonology
Kalaallisut		paarngorpoq	[paaɴːoʁpoq]	'crawls'
Klallam		sqəyáyŋəxʷ	[sqəˈjajɴəxʷ]	'big tree'	Contrasts with glottalized form.
Quechua	Peruvian	sonqo	[ˈs̠oɴqo]	'heart'	Allophone of /n/.
Spanish		enjuto	[ẽ̞ɴˈχuto̞]	'dry'	Allophone of /n/. See Spanish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles