Dental nasal

Dental nasal
n̪
IPA number	116 408
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	n​̪
Unicode (hex)	U+006E U+032A
X-SAMPA	n_d
Kirshenbaum	n[
Braille
Image

The dental nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨n̪⟩.

Features

Features of the dental nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also nasal, the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.
• Its place of articulation is dental, which means it is articulated with the tongue at either the upper or lower teeth, or both. (Most stops and liquids described as dental are actually denti-alveolar.)
• 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

True dental consonants are relatively uncommon. In the Romance, Dravidian, and Australian languages, n is often called "dental" in the literature. However, the rearmost contact (which is what 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, as which part of the tongue makes the contact. In English it is the tip of the tongue (such sounds are termed apical), whereas 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 South American language Mapudungun, where it is actually interdental. A true dental generally occurs allophonically before /θ/ in languages which have it, as in English tenth. Similarly, a denti-alveolar allophone will occur in languages which have denti-alveolar stops, as in Spanish cinta.

Some languages contrast laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar nasals. For example, in the Malayalam pronunciation of "Nārāyanan", the first "n" is dental, the second is retroflex, and the third alveolar.

True dental nasals

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English		month	[mʌn̪θ]	'month'	Interdental. Allophone of /n/ before /θ/ and /ð/.
Greek		άνθος ánthos	[ˈɐn̪θo̞s]	'flower'	Interdental. Allophone of /n/. See Modern Greek phonology
Malayalam		പന്നി	[pən̪n̪i]	'pig'	Interdental for some speakers.
Mapudungun			[l̪afken̪]	'sea, lake'	Interdental.
Spanish	Castilian	canción	[kan̪ˈθjõ̞n]	'song'	Interdental. Allophone of /n/ before /θ/.

Laminal denti-alveolar nasals

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Bulgarian		жена	[ʒɛˈn̪a]	'woman'
Dutch	Belgian	nicht	[n̻ɪxt̻]	'niece', 'cousin'	Sometimes simply alveolar. See Dutch phonology
French		connexion	[kɔn̻ɛksjɔ̃]	'connection'	Sometimes simply alveolar. See French phonology
Macedonian		нос	[n̪o̞s̪]	'nose'	See Macedonian phonology
Polish		nos	[n̪ɔs̪]	'nose'	Alveolar before /t͡ʂ d͡ʐ/. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	General	nariz	[n̻ɐˈɾiʃ]	'nose'	May nasalize preceding vowel (especially if stressed). Has [ɲ̟] as allophone, forming from clusters with [j], and before /i/.
	Vernacular Brazilian	percebendo	[pe̞ʁse̞ˈbẽn̻u]	'perceiving'	Allophone of /d/ after a stressed nasal vowel in more stigmatized varieties. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		alună	[äˈlun̪ə]	'hazelnut'	See Romanian phonology
Spanish	Most dialects	cantar	[kan̪ˈt̪är]	'to sing'	Allophone of /n/ before /t d/. See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	nu	[n̪ʉ̟ː]	'now'	See Swedish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art", Journal of Greek Linguistics 8: 97–208 
• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 
• Chițoran, Ioana (2001), The Phonology of Romanian: A Constraint-based Approach, Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016766-2 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191 
• Klagstad Jr., Harold L. (1958), The Phonemic System of Colloquial Standard Bulgarian, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, pp. 42–54 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-21411-9 
• Lunt, Horace G. (1952), Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X 
• Rocławski, Bronisław (1976), Zarys fonologii, fonetyki, fonotaktyki i fonostatystyki współczesnego języka polskiego, Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, pp. 130–181