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

File:Voiced uvular nasal.svg

Features of a voiced uvular nasal:

Occurrence

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

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

• Template:SOWL
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation

External links

• Template:Phoible