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.
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.
In some dialects of
English, the sequence /nj/ is sometimes realized as the palatal nasal plus a [j]-like offglide, via coalescence, a type of
assimilation. For example,
onion might be realized as or
canyon might be realized as . However, there are no
minimal pairs for [nj] and , so the palatal nasal is not a separate
phoneme in English.
Romance languages
A combination of the palatal nasal with a [j]-like offglide is fairly common in
Romance languages:
Catalan
Catalan has as a phoneme, and it is denoted by
, like in Catalunya.French
French has or perhaps as a phoneme, and it is denoted by .Occitan
Occitan has or perhaps as a phoneme, and it is denoted by .Istro-Romanian
Istro-Romanian has or perhaps as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <ń>.Italian
Italian has or perhaps as a phoneme, and it is denoted by , as in gnocchi (a type of pasta).Portuguese
Portuguese has as a phoneme, and it is denoted by , as in manhã (morning).Spanish
Spanish has the palatal nasal as a phoneme in many dialects, and this is denoted by <ñ>, as in mañana (tomorrow). However, in Mexico <ñ> is a palatalized alveolar nasal, . The difference is this: a true palatal is pronounced with contact between the middle of the tongue and the palate. The front of the tongue is not involved. In a palatalized alveolar (or dental), it is the front of the tongue that makes the contact, as in [n], but the middle of the tongue is simultaneously raised toward the palate, as in [j]. That is, is pronounced like a simultaneous [n] and [j], while or perhaps is palatal, though it may have a [j]-like offglide.Galician
Galician has as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <ñ>, as in año (//) - lamb.Uralic Languages
This phenome is also present in several Uralic Languages of the Finno-Urgic variety:Finnish
The Eastern dialects of Finnish, but not the standard language, retain the feature of palatalization, and the palatal nasal is the palatalized version of /n/. When the palatal nasal is in the position where standard Finnish would use , it is commonly written , for example mänj or perhaps , compare standard language meni [meni].[edit]Hungarian
Hungarian has as a phoneme, and it is denoted by , as in Ottomány (//). Even when in the final position, it retains its character as and does not degenerate to /nj/. See also Hungarian ny.Slavic languages
This sound also occurs in Slavic languages, for example in Belarusian and Russian нь, Serbian њ/nj, Polish ń, Croatian nj, and Slovak and Czech ň.
In Czech and Slovak, it is also pronounced in ni [], ní [] and in Czech ně and Slovak ne - both pronounced as [].
In Polish, it is also pronounced in ni [], nia [], nie [], nio [] and niu [].Latvian
This sound is written like Ņ ņ.Vietnamese
Vietnamese has as a phoneme, and it is denoted by , as in nhai (//) - to chew.* List of phonetics topics
