PALATAL NASAL

The 'palatal nasal' is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter ''n'' with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. Compare n and . The symbol should not be confused with , the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, or with , the symbol for the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem. In languages influenced by Spanish, this sound is represented with the letter ''eñe'' (ñ).

Contents

Features

Occurrence

See also

Features

Features of the palatal nasal:

★ Its manner of articulation is stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.

★ Its place of articulation is palatal which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate.

★ Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.

★ It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose.

★ It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.

★ The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		'''nj'ë''		'one'
Catalan		''ba'ny'''		'bath'	See Catalan phonology
Croatian		''ko'nj'''		'horse'
Czech		''ků'ň'''		'horse'	See Czech phonology
Dinka				'very'
English		''o'ni'on''		'onion'	Some dialects. See English phonology
French		''monta'gn'e''		mountain'	See French phonology
Galician		''a'ñ'o''		'year'
Greek		Πρωτοχρο'νι'ά		'New Year's Day'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		''lá'ny'''		'girl'	See Hungarian phonology
Indonesian		''ba'ny'ak''		'a lot'
Italian		''ba'gn'o''		'bath'	See Italian phonology
Malayalam		?		'I'
Norwegian	Northern dialects	''va'nn'''		'water'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Northern and Southern	''Polo'nh'a''		'Poland'
	Gascon	''ba'nh'''		'bath'
Polish		''sło'ń'''		'elephant'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		''a'nh'o''		'year'	See Portuguese phonology
Scottish Gaelic		''sei'nn'''		'sing'
Serbian		ко'њ'/''ko'nj'''		'horse'
Slovak		''peče'ň'''		'liver'
Spanish		''ense'ñ'ar''		'to teach'	See Spanish phonology
Vietnamese		'''nh'ai''		'to chew'	See Vietnamese phonology

See also

★ List of phonetics topics