Voiced retroflex nasal

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɳ⟩ in IPA

IPA Number 117

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Entity (decimal) ɳ

Unicode (hex) U+0273

X-SAMPA n`

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The voiced retroflex nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɳ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n`.

Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of an en (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant). It is similar to ⟨ɲ⟩, the letter for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem, and to ⟨ŋ⟩, the letter for the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem.

Features

Features of the voiced retroflex nasal:

Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Because the consonant is also nasal, the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.
Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
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.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Bengali^[1]					Rare; occurs in the extreme western dialects
Enindhilyagwa		yingarna	[jiŋaɳa]	'snake'
Faroese		ørn	[œɻɳ]	'eagle'
Hindi		ठण्डा/ṭhaṇḍā	[ʈʰəɳɖaː]	'cold'
Kannada		ಅಣೆ/aṇe	[ɐɳe]	'dam'
Khanty	Eastern dialects	еңә/eṇẹ	[eɳə]	'large'
Khanty	Some northern dialects	еңә/eṇẹ	[eɳə]	'large'
Malayalam^[2]		അണ/aṇa	[ɐɳɐ]	'jaw'
Marathi		बाण/bāṇa	[baːɳ]	'arrow'	Often realized as a flap in intervocalic and word-final positions. See Marathi phonology
Nepali		अण्डा/aṇḍā	[ʌɳɖä]	'egg'	See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		garn	[ɡɑːɳ]^ⓘ	'yarn'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ବଣି/baṇi	[bɔɳi]	'old'
Pashto		اتڼ/Ataṇ	[at̪aɳ]^ⓘ	'Attan'
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	ਪੁਰਾਣਾ/purāṇā	[pʊraːɳaː]	'old'
Punjabi	Shahmukhi	پُراݨا/purāṇā	[pʊraːɳaː]	'old'
Swedish^[3]		garn	[ɡɑːɳ]^ⓘ	'yarn'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil^[4]		அணல்/aṇal	[aɳal]	'neck'	See Tamil phonology
Telugu		గొణుగు/goṇugu	[goɳugu]	'murmur'	Occurs as allophone of anuswara when followed by Voiced retroflex plosives.
Vietnamese^[5]		anh trả	[aɳ˧ ʈa˨˩˦]	'you pay'	Allophone of /n/ before /ʈ/ in Saigon dialect. See Vietnamese phonology

Voiced retroflex nasal flap

Retroflex nasal flap
ɽ̃
ɳ̆

Features

Features of the retroflex nasal tap or flap:

Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
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.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Hindi	गणेश Gaṇeśa	[ɡəɽ̃eːʃ]	'Ganesha'	Allophone of /ɳ/ when not in clusters
Ndrumbea^[6]	/t̠ɽáɽẽ/	[t̠áɽ̃ã́ɻ̃ẽ]	'to run'	Allophone of /ɽ/ before a nasal vowel
Kangri^[7]	न्ह़ौणा	[nɔ̌ɽ̃ɑ]	'to bathe'

Notes

^ Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1926). The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language. Vol. 1. Calcutta: Calcutta University Press. p. 269.
^ Ladefoged (2005:165)
^ Eliasson (1986:278–279)
^ Keane (2004:111)
^ Thompson (1959:458–461)
^ Gordon, Matthew; Maddieson, Ian (October 1995). "The phonetics of Ndumbea". UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics (91): 25–44.
^ Eaton 2008, p. 32.

References

Eaton, Robert D. (May 2008). Kangri in Context: An Areal Perspective (PhD dissertation). Arlington: University of Texas. hdl:10106/945.
Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning (ed.), Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 271–300
Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549
Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232

External links

List of languages with [ɳ] on PHOIBLE

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

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Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ		kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

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Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

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Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]