Editing Nasal consonant (section)

== 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 /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, its mostly an allophone of other nasals before labiodentals and currently there is only 1 reported language, [[Kukuya language|Kukuya]], which distinguishes /m, ɱ, n, ɲ, ŋ/ and also a set of prenasalized consonants like /ᶬp̪fʰ, ᶬb̪v/.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Paulian|1975|p=41}}</ref> [[Yuanmen language|Yuanmen]] used to have it phonemically before merging it with /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
}}</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]] 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, /m̥, n̥, ŋ̊/, which occur predominantly as a result of [[nasal mutation]] of their voiced counterparts (/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 /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 /m̥ n̥ ȵ̊ ŋ̊ ɴ̥ m n ȵ ŋ ɴ/,  also one of the few languages to have a [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 /m, n̪, n, ɳ, ṉ/ ([[Palato-alveolar consonant|palato-alveolar]]), /ŋ̟/ ([[Velar consonant|front velar]]), and /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 /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]}}.