View source for Nasal consonant

{{Short description|Consonant pronounced by letting air escape through the nose but not through the mouth}}
{{About|nasal stop consonants|other types of consonants produced with nasal resonance|Nasalization}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more footnotes|date=May 2019}}
{{Citation style|date=August 2018}}
}}

{{IPA notice}}
In [[phonetics]], a '''nasal''', also called a '''nasal occlusive''' or '''nasal stop''' in contrast with an [[Stop consonant|oral stop]] or [[nasalization|nasalized consonant]], is an [[occlusive]] [[consonant]] [[manner of articulation|produced]] with a lowered [[soft palate|velum]], allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majority of consonants are [[oral consonant]]s. Examples of nasals in [[English language|English]] are {{IPA|[n]}}, {{IPA|[ŋ]}} and {{IPA|[m]}}, in words such as ''nose'', ''bring'' and ''mouth''.

Nasal occlusives are nearly universal in human languages. There are also other kinds of '''nasal consonants''' in some languages.

== Definition ==
Nearly all nasal consonants are nasal occlusives, in which air escapes through the nose but not through the mouth, as it is blocked (occluded) by the lips or tongue. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound. Rarely, non-occlusive consonants may be [[nasalization|nasalized]].

Most nasals are [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]], and in fact, the nasal sounds {{IPA|[n]}} and {{IPA|[m]}} are among the most common sounds cross-linguistically. Voiceless nasals occur in a few languages such as [[Burmese language|Burmese]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] and [[Guaraní Language|Guaraní]]. (Compare oral [[stop consonant|stops]], which block off the air completely, and [[fricative consonant|fricatives]], which obstruct the air with a narrow channel. Both stops and fricatives are more commonly voiceless than voiced, and are known as [[obstruent]]s.)

In terms of acoustics, nasals are [[sonorant]]s, which means that they do not significantly restrict the escape of air (as it can freely escape out the nose). However, nasals are also [[obstruent]]s in their articulation because the flow of air through the mouth is blocked. This duality, a sonorant airflow through the nose along with an obstruction in the mouth, means that nasal occlusives behave both like sonorants and like obstruents. For example, nasals tend to pattern with other sonorants such as {{IPA|[r]}} and {{IPA|[l]}}, but in many languages, they may develop from or into stops.

Acoustically, nasals have bands of energy at around 200 and 2,000&nbsp;Hz.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan=2 | Voiced
! colspan=2 | Voiceless
|-
! Description
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
! Description
! IPA
|-
| [[voiced bilabial nasal]] || {{IPA|[m]}} || [[voiceless bilabial nasal]] || {{IPA|[m̥]}}
|-
| [[voiced labiodental nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɱ]}} || [[voiceless labiodental nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɱ̊]}}
|-
| [[voiced linguolabial nasal]] || {{IPA|[n̼]}} || voiceless linguolabial nasal || {{IPA|[n̼̊]}}
|-
| [[voiced dental nasal]] || {{IPA|[n̪]}} || [[voiceless dental nasal]] || {{IPA|[n̪̊]}}
|-
| [[voiced alveolar nasal]] {{ref|a|1}} || {{IPA|[n]}} || [[voiceless alveolar nasal]] {{ref|a|1}} || {{IPA|[n̥]}}
|-
| [[voiced retroflex nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɳ]}} || [[voiceless retroflex nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɳ̊]}}
|-
| [[voiced palatal nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɲ]}} || [[voiceless palatal nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɲ̊]}}
|-
| [[voiced velar nasal]] || {{IPA|[ŋ]}} || [[voiceless velar nasal]] || {{IPA|[ŋ̊]}}
|-
| [[voiced uvular nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɴ]}} || [[voiceless uvular nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɴ̥]}}
|-
| [[voiced labial–alveolar nasal]] || {{IPA|[n͡m]}} || voiceless labial–alveolar nasal || {{IPA|[n̥͡m̥]}}
|-
| [[voiced labial–retroflex nasal]] || {{IPA|[ɳ͡m]}} || voiceless labial–retroflex nasal || {{IPA|[ɳ̥͡m̥]}}
|-
| [[voiced labial–velar nasal]] || {{IPA|[ŋ͡m]}} || voiceless labial–velar nasal || {{IPA|[ŋ̥͡m̥]}}
|}

1. {{note|a}} The symbol {{angbr IPA|n}} is commonly used to represent the [[dental consonant|dental]] nasal as well, rather than {{angbr IPA|n̪}}, as it is rarely distinguished from the [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]] nasal.

Examples of languages containing nasal occlusives:

The voiced retroflex nasal {{IPA|[ɳ]}} is a common sound in [[Languages of South Asia]] and [[Australian Aboriginal languages]].

The voiced palatal nasal {{IPA|[ɲ]}} is a common sound in [[Languages of Europe|European languages]], such as: [[Spanish language|Spanish]] {{angbr|ñ}}, [[French language|French]] and [[Italian language|Italian]] {{angbr|gn}}, [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] {{angbr|ny}}, [[Czech language|Czech]] and [[Slovak language|Slovak]] {{angbr|ň}}, [[Polish language|Polish]] {{angbr|ń}}, [[Occitan language|Occitan]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{angbr|nh}}, and (before a vowel) [[Modern Greek]] {{angbr|νι}}.

Many [[Germanic languages]], including [[German language|German]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[English language|English]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]], as well as [[varieties of Chinese]] such as [[Standard Chinese|Mandarin]] and [[Cantonese]], have {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}} and {{IPA|/ŋ/}}. [[Malayalam]] has a six-fold distinction between {{IPA|/m, n̪, n, ɳ, ɲ, ŋ/}} {{angbr|മ, ന, ഩ, ണ, ഞ, ങ}}; some speakers also have a {{IPA|/ŋʲ/}}.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/malayalam-namboodiri-dialect/19CBF6E9E1CE65A84928F7C9C2286A9B | doi=10.1017/S0025100315000407 | title=Malayalam (Namboodiri Dialect) | date=2017 | last1=Namboodiripad | first1=Savithry | last2=Garellek | first2=Marc | journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association | volume=47 | pages=109–118 | s2cid=152106506 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The [[Nuosu language]] also contrasts six categories of nasals, {{IPA|/m, n, m̥, n̥, ɲ, ŋ/}}. They are represented in romanisation by <m, n, hm, hn, ny, ng>. Nuosu also contrasts prenasalised stops and affricates with their voiced, unvoiced, and aspirated versions. 

/ɱ/ is the rarest voiced nasal to be phonemic, as it is mostly an allophone of other nasals before labiodentals. Currently, there is only 1 reported language, [[Kukuya language|Kukuya]], which distinguishes {{IPA|/m, ɱ, n, ɲ, ŋ/}} and also a set of prenasalized consonants like {{IPA|/ᶬp̪fʰ, ᶬb̪v/}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Paulian|1975|p=41}}</ref> [[Yuanmen language|Yuanmen]] used to have it phonemically before merging it with {{IPA|/m/}}.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Norquest|2007|p=107}}</ref>

Catalan, [[Occitan language|Occitan]], Spanish, and Italian have {{IPA|/m, n, ɲ/}} as [[phoneme]]s, and {{IPA|[ɱ, ŋ]}} as allophones. It may also be claimed that Catalan has phonemic {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, at least on the basis of [[Central Catalan]] forms such as {{lang|ca|sang}} {{IPA|[saŋ]}}, although the only minimal pairs involve foreign [[proper nouns]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmid |first1=Stephan |editor1-last=Ledgeway |editor1-first=Adam |editor-link1=Adam Ledgeway |editor2-last=Maiden |editor2-first=Martin |editor-link2=Martin Maiden |title=The Oxford guide to the Romance languages |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199677108 |edition=First |chapter=Segmental phonology |pages=478–479 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001}}</ref> Also, among many younger speakers of [[Rioplatense Spanish]], the palatal nasal has been lost, replaced by a cluster {{IPA|[nj]}}, as in English ''canyon''.<ref>{{citation|last=Coloma|first=Germán|year=2018|title=Argentine Spanish|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association|volume=48|issue=2|pages=243–250|doi=10.1017/S0025100317000275|s2cid=232345835|url=https://www.ucema.edu.ar/u/gcoloma/ArgentineSpanish.pdf|access-date=2021-12-04|archive-date=2022-05-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525010842/https://ucema.edu.ar/u/gcoloma/ArgentineSpanish.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In [[Brazilian Portuguese]] and [[Angolan Portuguese]] {{IPA|/ɲ/}}, written {{angbr|nh}}, is typically pronounced as {{IPA|[ȷ̃]}}, a [[nasal palatal approximant]], a nasal glide (in [[Polish language|Polish]], this feature is also possible as an allophone). Semivowels in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] often nasalize before and always after nasal vowels, resulting in {{IPA|[ȷ̃]}} and {{IPAblink|w̃}}. What would be [[Syllable#Coda|coda]] nasal occlusives in other [[West Iberian languages]] is only slightly pronounced before [[dental consonant]]s. Outside this environment the nasality is spread over the vowel or become a nasal diphthong (''mambembe'' {{IPA|[mɐ̃ˈbẽjbi]}}, outside the [[Syllable#final|final]], only in Brazil, and ''mantém'' {{IPA|[mɐ̃ˈtẽj ~ mɐ̃ˈtɐ̃j]}} in all Portuguese dialects).

The [[Japanese language|Japanese]] [[kana|syllabary kana]] {{lang|ja|ん}}, typically romanized as ''n'' and occasionally ''m'', can manifest as one of several different nasal consonants depending on what consonant follows it; this allophone, colloquially written in IPA as {{IPA|/N/}}, is known as the [[Japanese phonology#Moraic nasal|moraic nasal]], per the language's moraic structure.

[[Welsh language|Welsh]] has a set of voiceless nasals, {{IPA|/m̥, n̥, ŋ̊/}}, which occur predominantly as a result of [[nasal mutation]] of their voiced counterparts ({{IPA|/m, n, ŋ/}}).

The [[Mapos Buang language|Mapos Buang]] language of New Guinea has a phonemic uvular nasal, /ɴ/, which contrasts with a velar nasal. It is extremely rare for a language to have /ɴ/ as a phoneme. The {{IPA|/ŋ, ɴ/}} distinction also occurs in a few [[Inuit languages]] like [[Iñupiaq language|Iñupiaq]]. [[Chamdo languages]] like [[Lamo language|Lamo]] (Kyilwa dialect), [[Larong language|Larong sMar]] (Tangre Chaya dialect), [[Drag-yab language|Drag-yab sMar]] (Razi dialect) have an extreme distinction of {{IPA|/m̥ n̥ ȵ̊ ŋ̊ ɴ̥ m n ȵ ŋ ɴ/}},  also one of the few languages to have a {{IPA|[ɴ̥]}}.<ref>Suzuki, Hiroyuki and Tashi Nyima. 2018. [http://hdl.handle.net/2433/235308 Historical relationship among three non-Tibetic languages in Chamdo, TAR]. ''Proceedings of the 51st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (2018)''. Kyoto: Kyoto University.</ref>

[[Yanyuwa language|Yanyuwa]] is highly unusual in that it has a seven-way distinction between {{IPA|/m, n̪, n, ɳ, ṉ/}} ([[Palato-alveolar consonant|palato-alveolar]]), {{IPA|/ŋ̟/}} ([[Velar consonant|front velar]]), and {{IPA|/ŋ̠/}} ([[Velar consonant|back velar]]). This may be the only language in existence that contrasts nasals at seven distinct points of articulation.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/yanuya/yanuwa.html | title=Yanuyuwa }}</ref>

[[Yele language|Yélî Dnye]] also has an extreme contrast of {{IPA|/m, mʷ, mʲ, mʷʲ, n̪, n̪͡m, n̠, n̠͡m, n̠ʲ, ŋ, ŋʷ, ŋʲ, ŋ͡m/}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Stephen C. |title=A Grammar of Yélî Dnye: The Papuan Language of Rossel Island |date=23 May 2022 |publisher=De Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110733853 |isbn=978-3-11-073385-3 |s2cid=249083265 |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733853 |access-date=16 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title=Phonology and grammar of Yele, Papua New Guinea | url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/160609178.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005070155/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/160609178.pdf | archive-date=2023-10-05}}</ref><ref>{{SOWL}}</ref>

The term 'nasal occlusive' (or 'nasal stop') is generally abbreviated to ''nasal''. However, there are also nasalized fricatives, nasalized flaps, [[nasal glide]]s, and [[nasal vowel]]s, as in French, Portuguese, and Polish. In the [[help:IPA|IPA]], nasal vowels and nasalized consonants are indicated by placing a tilde (~) over the vowel or consonant in question: French ''sang'' {{IPA|[sɑ̃]}}, Portuguese ''bom'' {{IPA|[bõ]}}, Polish ''wąż'' {{IPA|[vɔ̃w̃ʂ]}}.

==Voiceless nasals==
A few languages have phonemic voiceless nasal occlusives. Among them are [[Icelandic Language|Icelandic]], [[Faroese language|Faroese]], [[Burmese language|Burmese]], [[Jalapa Mazatec]], [[Kildin Sami]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], and [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language|Central Alaskan Yup'ik]]. [[Iaai language|Iaai]] of New Caledonia has an unusually large number of them, with {{IPA|/m̥ m̥ʷ n̪̊ ɳ̊ ɲ̊ ŋ̊/}}, along with a number of [[voiceless approximant]]s.

==Other kinds of nasal consonant==
Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) distinguish purely nasal consonants, the nasal occlusives such as ''m n ng'' in which the airflow is purely nasal, from partial nasal consonants such as '''[[prenasalized consonant]]s''' and nasal [[pre-stopped consonant]]s, which are nasal for only part of their duration, as well as from '''nasalized consonants''', which have simultaneous oral and nasal airflow.<ref>{{SOWL|102}}</ref> In some languages, such as [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], a nasal consonant may have occlusive and non-occlusive [[allophone]]s. In general, therefore, a nasal consonant may be:

* a nasal occlusive, such as English ''m, n, ng''
* [[nasal approximant]]s, as in ''nh, ão'' {{IPA|[j̃, w̃]}} in some [[Portuguese phonology|Portuguese dialects]] and ''ą, ę'' in [[Polish phonology|Polish]]
* prenasalized consonants, pre-stopped nasals and post-stopped nasals, as in [[Arrernte language|Arrernte]]
* [[nasal click]]s such as [[Zulu language|Zulu]] ''nq, nx, nc''
* other [[nasalization|nasalized]] consonants, such as [[Fricative consonant#Nasalized fricatives|nasalized fricatives]]

A nasal trill {{IPA|[r̃]}} has been described from some dialects of Romanian, and is posited as an intermediate historical step in [[Rhotacism (sound change)|rhotacism]]. However, the phonetic variation of the sound is considerable, and it is not clear how frequently it is actually trilled.{{sfnp|Sampson|1999|pp=312–3}} Some languages contrast {{IPA|/r, r̃/}} like [[Toro-tegu Dogon]] (contrasts {{IPA|/w, r, j, w̃, r̃, j̃/}})<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Grammar of Toro Tegu (Dogon), Tabi mountain dialect|last=Heath|first=Jeffrey|year=2014|url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/123064/A?sequence=4}}</ref> and [[Inor_language|Inor]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abza |first1=Tsehay |title=Consonants and Vowels in the Western Gurage Variety Inor: Complex Connections between Phonemes, Allophones, and Free Alternations |editor1=Binyam Sisay Mendisu |editor2=Janne Bondi Johannessen|editor2-link=Janne Bondi Johannessen |journal=Oslo Studies in Language |date=2016 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=31–54 |doi=10.5617/osla.4416|doi-access=free }}</ref> A nasal lateral has been reported for some languages, [[Nzema language|Nzema]] contrasts {{IPA|/l, l̃/}},<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Berry|first=J.|date=1955|title=Some Notes on the Phonology of the Nzema and Ahanta Dialects|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|language=en|volume=17|issue=1|pages=160–165|doi=10.1017/S0041977X00106421|s2cid=162551544 |issn=1474-0699}}</ref> [[Nemi language|Nemi]] contrasts {{IPA|/w, w̥, h, w̃, w̥̃, h̃/}}. [[Ganza language|Ganza]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smolders |first=Joshua |date=2016 |title=A Phonology of Ganza |url=http://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/document/1070 |format=pdf |journal=Linguistic Discovery |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=86–144 |doi=10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.470 |access-date=2017-01-16 |doi-access=free}}</ref> contrasts {{IPA|/ʔ, ʔ̃/}}.

=={{anchor|Lack}}Languages without nasals==
A few languages, perhaps 2%,<ref>Maddieson, Ian. 2008. Absence of Common Consonants. In: Haspelmath, Martin & Dryer, Matthew S. & Gil, David & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 18. Available online at http://wals.info/feature/18 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601070340/http://wals.info/feature/18 |date=2009-06-01 }}. Accessed on 2008-09-15.</ref> contain no phonemically distinctive nasals. This led Ferguson (1963) to assume that all languages have at least one primary nasal occlusive. However, there are exceptions.

===Lack of phonemic nasals===
When a language is claimed to lack nasals altogether, as with several [[Niger–Congo languages]]<ref group=note>These languages lie in a band from western Liberia to southeastern Nigeria, and north to southern Burkina Faso. They include:
*Liberia: Kpelle (Mande); Grebo, Klao (Kru)
*Burkina Faso: Bwamu (Gur)
*Ivory Coast: Dan, Guro-Yaoure, Wan-Mwan, Gban/Gagu, Tura (Mande); Senadi/Senufo (Gur); Nyabwa, Wè (Kru); Ebrié, Avikam, Abure (Kwa)
*Ghana: Abron, Akan, Ewe (Kwa)
*Benin: Gen, Fon (Kwa)
*Nigeria: Mbaise Igbo, Ikwere (Igboid)
*CAR: Yakoma (Ubangi)
(Heine & Nurse, eds, 2008, ''A Linguistic Geography of Africa'', p.46)</ref> or the [[Pirahã language]] of the Amazon, nasal and non-nasal or prenasalized consonants usually alternate [[Allophone|allophonically]], and it is a theoretical claim on the part of the individual linguist that the nasal is not the basic form of the consonant. In the case of some Niger–Congo languages, for example, nasals occur before only nasal vowels. Since nasal vowels are phonemic, it simplifies the picture somewhat to assume that nasalization in occlusives is allophonic. There is then a second step in claiming that nasal vowels nasalize oral occlusives, rather than oral vowels denasalizing nasal occlusives, that is, whether {{IPA|[mã, mba]}} are phonemically {{IPA|/mbã, mba/}} without full nasals, or {{IPA|/mã, ma/}} without prenasalized stops. Postulating underlying oral or prenasalized stops rather than true nasals helps to explain the apparent instability of nasal correspondences throughout Niger–Congo compared with, for example, Indo-European.<ref>As noted by [[Kay Williamson]] ([http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=22387 1989:24]).</ref> [[Mande languages#Proto-language|Proto-Mande]] has also been reconstructed with a system in which nasals are allophones of oral stops and approximants.<ref name="Vydrin3">{{cite journal |last=Vydrin |first=Valentin |title=Toward a Proto-Mande reconstruction and an etymological dictionary |journal=Faits de Langues |year=2016 |volume=47 |pages=109–123 |doi=10.1163/19589514-047-01-900000008 |s2cid=56242828 |url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01375776/file/08-Vydrin-mande.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last1=Smith | first1=Casey Roche | title=Mande and Atlantic-Congo: A Preliminary Investigation in Phonology and Lexicon | date=January 2024 | url=https://www.academia.edu/126121513 }}</ref>

This analysis comes at the expense, in some languages, of postulating either a single nasal consonant that can only be syllabic, or a larger set of nasal vowels than oral vowels, both typologically odd situations. The way such a situation could develop is illustrated by a [[Jukunoid language]], [[Wukari language|Wukari]]. Wukari allows oral vowels in syllables like ''ba, mba'' and nasal vowels in ''bã, mã'', suggesting that nasals become prenasalized stops before oral vowels. Historically, however, *mb became **mm before nasal vowels, and then reduced to *m, leaving the current asymmetric distribution.<ref>Larry Hyman, 1975. "Nasal states and nasal processes." In ''Nasalfest: Papers from a Symposium on Nasals and Nasalization,'' pp. 249–264</ref>

In older speakers of the [[Tlingit language]], {{IPA|[l]}} and {{IPA|[n]}} are allophones. Tlingit is usually described as having an unusual, perhaps unique lack of {{IPA|/l/}} despite having five [[lateral consonant|lateral obstruents]]; the older generation could be argued to have {{IPA|/l/}} but at the expense of having no nasals.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

===Lack of phonetic nasals===
Several of languages surrounding [[Puget Sound]], such as [[Quileute language|Quileute]] (Chimakuan family), [[Lushootseed]] (Salishan family), and [[Makah language|Makah]] (Wakashan family), are truly without any nasalization whatsoever, in consonants or vowels, except in special speech registers such as [[baby talk]] or the archaic speech of mythological figures (and perhaps not even that in the case of Quileute). This is an [[areal feature]], only a few hundred years old, where nasals became voiced stops ({{IPA|[m]}} became {{IPA|[b]}}, {{IPA|[n]}} became {{IPA|[d]}}, {{IPA|[ɳ]}} became {{IPA|[ɖ]}}, {{IPA|[ɲ]}} became {{IPA|[ɟ]}}, {{IPA|[ŋ]}} became {{IPA|[g]}}, {{IPA|[ŋʷ]}} became {{IPA|[gʷ]}}, {{IPA|[ɴ]}} became {{IPA|[ɢ]}}, etc.) after colonial contact. For example, "Snohomish" is currently pronounced ''sdohobish'', but was transcribed with nasals in the first English-language records.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

The only other places in the world where this is known to occur are in Melanesia. In the central dialect of the [[Rotokas language]] of Bougainville Island, nasals are only used when imitating foreign accents. (A second dialect has a series of nasals.) The [[Lakes Plain languages]] of West Irian are similar.

The  unconditioned loss of nasals, as in Puget Sound, is unusual. Currently in [[Korean language|Korean]], {{IPA|/m/}} and {{IPA|/n/}} are shifting to {{IPA|[b]}} and {{IPA|[d]}}, but only word-initially. This started out in nonstandard dialects and was restricted to the beginning of prosodic units (a common position for [[fortition]]), but has expanded to many speakers of the standard language to the beginnings of common words even within prosodic units.<ref>Yoshida, Kenji, 2008. "Phonetic implementation of Korean 'denasalization' and its variation related to prosody". IULC Working Papers, vol. 6.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Oral consonant]]
* [[Nasal click]]
* [[Nasal vowel]]
* [[Nasalization]]
* [[List of phonetics topics]]
* [[Syllabic consonant]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Ferguson (1963) 'Assumptions about nasals', in Greenberg (ed.) ''Universals of Language'', pp.&nbsp;50–60.
* {{cite thesis |last=Norquest |first=Peter K. |year=2007 |title=A phonological reconstruction of Proto-Hlai |publisher=[[University of Arizona]] |hdl=10150/194203 |degree=PhD |url=https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/194203/azu_etd_2517_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714100732/https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/194203/azu_etd_2517_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-date=2021-07-14 |url-status=live}}
* {{citation |last=Paulian |first=Christiane |year=1975 |title=Le Kukuya Langue Teke du Congo: phonologie, classes nominales |publisher=Peeters Publishers}}
* {{citation |last=Sampson |first=Rodney |year=1999 |title=Nasal Vowel Evolution in Romance |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-823848-7}}
*Saout, J. le (1973) 'Languages sans consonnes nasales', ''Annales de l Université d'Abidjan'', H, 6, 1, 179–205.
*[[Kay Williamson|Williamson, Kay]] (1989) 'Niger–Congo overview', in Bendor-Samuel & Hartell (eds.) ''The Niger–Congo Languages'', 3–45.

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