Voiced uvular nasal

A voiced 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 Template:Angbr IPA, a small capital version of the Latin letter n.

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.<ref name="Johnson-1978">Template:Cite journal</ref> This difficulty can be said to account for the marked rarity of this sound among the world's languages.<ref name="Johnson-1978" />

A uvular nasal most commonly occurs as a conditioned allophone of other sounds,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> for example as an allophone of Template:IPAslink before a uvular plosive as in Quechua, or as an allophone of Template:IPAslink before another nasal consonant as in Selkup. However, it has been reported to exist as an independent phoneme in a small number of languages. Examples include the Klallam language, Tagalog language, the Tawellemmet and Ayr varieties of Tuareg Berber,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the Rangakha dialect of Khams Tibetan,<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> at least two dialects of the Bai language,<ref name="Allen-2007">Template:Cite report</ref><ref name="Feng-2006">Template:Cite book</ref> the Papuan language Mapos Buang,<ref name="Rambok-2010" /> and the Chamdo languages: Lamo (Kyilwa dialect), Larong sMar (Tangre Chaya dialect), Drag-yab sMar (Razi dialect).<ref name="Suzuki-2018">Template:Cite book</ref> In Mapos Buang and in the Bai dialects, it contrasts phonemically with a velar nasal.<ref name="Allen-2007" /><ref name="Feng-2006" /><ref name="Rambok-2010" /> In the Chamdo languages it contrasts phonemically with Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, and Template:IPAslink.<ref name="Suzuki-2018" /> The syllable-final nasal in Japanese was traditionally said to be realized as a uvular nasal when utterance-final, but empirical studies have disputed this claim.Template:Sfnp

There is also a pre-uvular nasal<ref>Instead of "pre-uvular", these can be called "advanced uvular", "fronted uvular", "post-velar", "retracted velar" or "backed velar". For simplicity, this article uses only the term "pre-uvular".</ref> in some languages such as Yanyuwa, 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 Template:Angbr IPA (advanced Template:Angbr IPA), Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA (both symbols denote a retracted Template:Angbr IPA).

Features

Features of a voiced uvular nasal:

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Many speakers	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'pleasant'	Allophone of Template:IPA before Template:IPAslink; realized as Template:IPA in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Standard	Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'coup'	Allophone of Template:IPA before Template:IPA; more commonly realized as Template:IPA.
Armenian		Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'brainless'	Allophone of Template:IPA before a uvular consonant in informal speech.
Bai	Enqi dialect<ref name="Feng-2006" />		Template:IPA	'to walk'	Phonemic, and contrasts with Template:IPA.
	Luobenzhuo dialect<ref name="Allen-2007" />	Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'I'	Phonemic, and contrasts with Template:IPA.
Bashkir		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'wilderness'	Allophone of Template:IPA in back vowel contexts.
Dutch	Netherlandic	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'pleasant'	Allophone of Template:IPA and Template:IPA before Template:IPA, in dialects that use it. Can be realized as Template:IPA in formal speech.
English	Northumbrian	Template:Example needed			<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Georgian		Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'hip joint'	Allophone of Template:IPA before uvular consonants.
Iñupiaq	North Slope	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'he will study'	Corresponds to Template:IPA in other dialects.
Inuvialuktun		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to where?'	Allophonic; see Inuit phonology
Japanese		本 / hon	[hoɴ]	'book'	Coda allophone of /N/, the syllabic nasal. See Japanese phonology.
Kalaallisut		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'crawls'	Occurrence and phonemic status depend on the dialect.
Kazakh		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'new'	Allophone of Template:IPA in back vowel contexts.
Klallam		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'big tree'	Contrasts with a glottalized form, but not with Template:IPA.
Lamo			Template:IPA	'five'	Contrasts with Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA.
Malto		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to tell'	Template:IPA is phonetically Template:IPA. Template:IPA is Template:IPA in Southern and Western dialects. See Malto#Phonology.
Mapos Buang<ref name="Rambok-2010">Template:Cite book</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'widower'	Phonemic, and contrasts with Template:IPA.
Mongolian		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'Mongolia'	Allophone of Template:IPA.
Okinawan<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'grandmother'	Post-glottal allophone of Template:IPA.
Quechua	Peruvian	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'heart'	Allophone of Template:IPA.
SpanishTemplate:Sfnb		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'shriveled'	Allophone of Template:IPA. See Spanish phonology
Turkmen		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'bell'	Allophone of Template:IPA next to back vowels.
YanyuwaTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'adolescent boy'	Pre-uvular; contrasts with post-palatal Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

• Template:Phoible