Voiced uvular nasal

IPA Unicode 0x0274

Voiced uvular nasal

The voiced uvular nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is ⟨ɴ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N\.

Characteristics

The voiced uvular nasal is a nasal consonant produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract, allowing it to escape through the nose while vibrating the vocal cords. It is articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the uvula at the back of the mouth, which distinguishes it from other nasal consonants such as the voiced alveolar nasal (as in English "no") and the voiced velar nasal (as in English "sing").

Articulation

• Place of Articulation: The place of articulation for the voiced uvular nasal is the uvula, which is located at the back of the oral cavity.
• Manner of Articulation: This consonant is a nasal, which means airflow is completely blocked in the mouth and directed through the nose.
• Voicing: It is voiced, meaning the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• Oral or Nasal: It is a nasal consonant, which allows air to escape through the nose.

Occurrence

The voiced uvular nasal is relatively rare across languages. It can be found in languages such as Inuktitut, where it is a phonemic sound, distinguishing words from one another. The presence and usage of this sound vary significantly from one language to another, and it is often considered to be a phonetic detail rather than a phonemic element in many languages.

See also

• Nasal consonant
• Uvular consonant
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation