| Ipa Symbol: | ɲ |
| Ipa Number: | 118 |
| Decimal: | 626 |
| Xsampa: | J |
| Kirshenbaum: | n^ |
| Braille: | 123456 |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0272.svg |
| Above: | Voiced alveolo-palatal nasal |
| Ipa Symbol: | n̠ʲ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ɲ̟ |
The voiced palatal nasal is a type of consonant used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|ɲ), a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J. The IPA symbol (IPA|ɲ) is visually similar to (IPA|ɳ ), the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, and to (IPA|ŋ), the symbol for the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem.
The IPA symbol derives from (IPA|n) and (IPA|j), (IPA|n) for nasality and (IPA|j) denoting palatal. In Spanish and languages whose writing systems are influenced by Spanish orthography, it is represented by the letter (ñ), called eñe ("enye"). In French and Italian orthographies the sound is represented by the digraph (gn). Occitan uses the digraph (nh), the source of the same Portuguese digraph called ene-agá, used thereafter by languages whose writing systems are influenced by Portuguese orthography, such as Vietnamese.[1] [2] In Catalan, Hungarian and many African languages, as Swahili or Dinka, the digraph (ny) is used. In Albanian and some countries that used to be Yugoslavia, the digraph (Nj) is used, and sometimes, for the languages with the Cyrillic script that used to be part of Yugoslavia, uses the (Њњ) Cyrillic ligature that might be part of the official alphabet. In Czech and Slovak, /pronounced as /ɲ// is represented by letter (ň) whilst Kashubian and Polish use (ń). In Bengali it is represented by the letter (ঞ).
The voiced alveolo-palatal nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some oral languages. There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound. If more precision is desired, it may be transcribed (IPA|n̠ʲ) or (IPA|ɲ̟); these are essentially equivalent, since the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue. There is a non-IPA letter, ; ((n), plus the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives), which is used especially in Sinological circles.
The alveolo-palatal nasal is commonly described as palatal; it is often unclear whether a language has a true palatal or not. Many languages claimed to have a palatal nasal, such as Portuguese, actually have an alveolo-palatal nasal. This is likely true of several of the languages listed here. Some dialects of Irish as well as some non-standard dialects of Malayalam are reported to contrast alveolo-palatal and palatal nasals.
There is also a post-palatal nasal (also called pre-velar, fronted velar etc.) in some languages. Palatal nasals are more common than the palatal stops pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|c}}, {{IPAplink|ɟ}}]/.
Features of the voiced palatal nasal:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | Represented by (ny) | ||||
| Albanian: [[Albanian alphabet|'''nj'''ë]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ɲə]/ | 'one' | ||||
| Amharic | Amharic: [[Geʽez script|ዘጠኝ]] / | [zɛtʼɛɲ] | 'nine' | |||
| — | — | Alveolo-palatal and dento-alveolo-palatal. | ||||
| Asturian | Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: [[Asturian alphabet|caba'''ñ'''a]] | pronounced as /[kaˈβaɲa]/ | 'hut' | See Asturian phonology | ||
| Basque | Basque: [[Basque alphabet|andere'''ñ'''o]] | pronounced as /[än̪d̪e̞ɾe̞ɲo̞]/ | 'female teacher' | |||
| Bengali: [[Bengali alphabet|মিঞা]] / | pronounced as /[miɲɑ]/ | 'mister' | ||||
| Bulgarian: [[Bulgarian alphabet|си'''нь'''о]] | pronounced as /[siˈɲo]/ | 'blue' | Only occurs before ь, ю, and я. See Bulgarian phonology | |||
| Burmese: [[Burmese alphabet|ညာ]] / | pronounced as /[ɲà]/ | 'right(-hand side)' | Contrasts with the voiceless palatal nasal pronounced as //ɲ̥//. | |||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|a'''ny''']] | pronounced as /[ˈaɲ̟]/ | 'year' | Alveolo-palatal or palatal. See Catalan phonology | |||
| Czech: [[Czech orthography|ků'''ň''']] | pronounced as /[kuːɲ]/ | 'horse' | May be intermediate between palatal and alveolo-palatal. See Czech phonology | |||
| Dinka: [[Dinka alphabet|'''ny'''ɔt]] | pronounced as /[ɲɔt]/ | 'very' | ||||
| Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|ora'''nj'''e]] | pronounced as /[oˈrɑɲə]/ | 'orange' | Not all dialects. See Dutch phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[kɛɲən]/ | 'canyon' | Common in Malay, allophone of /nj/. | ||||
| French: [[French orthography|o'''gn'''on]] | 'onion' | See French phonology | ||||
| Galician | Galician: vi'''ñ'''o | pronounced as /[ˈbiɲo]/ | 'wine' | See Galician phonology | ||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Greek alphabet|πρωτοχρο'''νι'''ά]] / | pronounced as /[pro̞to̞xro̞ˈɲ̟ɐ]/ | 'New Year's Day' | Alveolo-palatal. See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Haketia | pronounced as /[ru.ha.ˈɲi]/ | 'spiritual' | In free variation with pronounced as /link/ when immediately before pronounced as /link/. | |||
| Hindustani | Hindi | Hindi: [[Devanagari|पञ्छी]]/Hindi: [[Devanagari|पंछी]]/ | pronounced as /[pəɲ.t͡ʃʰiː]/ | 'bird' | Usually written in Urdu with pronounced as /link/, and usually with anuswar in Devanagari, written here with the dead consonant to demonstrate proper spelling. See Hindustani phonology | |
| Urdu | Urdu: [[Urdu alphabet|پنچھی]] / | |||||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian orthography|a'''ny'''a]] | pronounced as /[ˈɒɲɒ]/ | 'mother' | Alveolo-palatal with alveolar contact. See Hungarian phonology | |||
| Standard | Italian: [[Italian alphabet|ba'''gn'''o]] | pronounced as /[ˈbäɲːo]/ | 'bath' | Postalveolo-prepalatal. See Italian phonology | ||
| Italian: [[Italian alphabet|'''ni'''ente]] | pronounced as /[ˈɲːɛn̪t̪e]/ | 'nothing' | ||||
| Irish: [[Irish orthography|i'''nn'''é]] | pronounced as /[əˈn̠ʲeː]/ | 'yesterday' | Irish contrasts alveolo-palatal pronounced as //n̠ʲ//, palatal/palatovelar pronounced as //ɲ//, velar pronounced as //ŋ// and, in some dialects, palatalized alveolar pronounced as //nʲ//. See Irish phonology | |||
| Japanese: [[kanji|庭]] / | pronounced as /[ɲ̟iɰᵝa̠]/ | 'garden' | ||||
| Khasi | Khasi: bse'''iñ''' | pronounced as /[bsɛɲ]/ | 'snake' | |||
| Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|ពេញ]] / | pronounced as /[pɨɲ]/ | 'full' | See Khmer phonology | |||
| Korean: [[Hangul|저녁]] / | pronounced as /[t͡ɕʌɲ̟ʌk̚]/ | 'evening' | Alveolo-palatal. See Korean phonology | |||
| Kurdish | Southern | [[Kurdish alphabet|یانزه]] / | pronounced as /[jäːɲzˠa]/ | 'eleven' | See Kurdish phonology | |
| Latvian: [[Latvian alphabet|māko'''ņ'''ains]] | pronounced as /[maːkuɔɲains]/ | 'cloudy' | See Latvian phonology | |||
| Macedonian: [[Macedonian alphabet|чеша'''њ'''е]] / | pronounced as /[ˈt͡ʃɛʃaɲɛ]/ | 'itching' | See Macedonian phonology | |||
| — | — | Palatal. | ||||
| Malay: ba'''ny'''ak / Malay: [[Jawi script|با'''ڽـ'''ق]]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[bäɲäʔ]/ | 'a lot' | Does not occur as a syllable-final coda. Allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //t͡ʃ// and pronounced as //d͡ʒ// so pronounced as //punt͡ʃak// 'peak' is read as pronounced as /[puɲt͡ʃäʔ]/, not pronounced as /
| |||
| Malayalam: [[Malayalam script|'''ഞാ'''ൻ]] / | pronounced as /[ɲäːn]/ | 'I' | ||||
| Mandarin | Sichuanese | [[Chinese characters|女人]] / | pronounced as /[nʲy˨˩˦ zən˧˥]/ | ‘women’ | Alveolo-palatal | |
| Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|'''ñ'''achi]] | pronounced as /[ɲɜˈt͡ʃɪ]/ | 'spiced blood' | ||||
| Northern Frisian: flii'''nj''' | pronounced as /[ˈfliːɲ]/ | 'to fly' | ||||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|ma'''nn''']] | pronounced as /[mɑɲː]/ | 'man' | See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Southern | ||||||
| Occitan (post 1500);: Polo'''nh'''a | pronounced as /[puˈluɲo̞]/ | 'Poland' | Simultaneous alveolo-palatal and dento-alveolar or dento-alveolo-palatal. See Occitan phonology | |||
| Southern | ||||||
| Occitan (post 1500);: ba'''nh''' | pronounced as /[baɲ]/ | 'bath' | ||||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|ko'''ń''']] | 'horse' | Alveolo-palatal. May be replaced by a nasal palatal approximant in coda position or before fricatives. See Polish phonology | ||||
| Many dialects[3] | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|Sô'''ni'''a]] | pronounced as /[ˈsõ̞n̠ʲɐ]/ | 'Sonia' | Possible realization of post-stressed pronounced as //ni// plus vowel. | ||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|so'''nh'''ar]] | pronounced as /[sõ̞ˈɲaɾ]/ | 'to dream' | Central palatal, not the same that pronounced as /link/ which is pre-palatal.[4] May instead be approximant[5] in Brazil and Africa. May be pronounced [soj̃''''ŋ̚j'''a(ɹ)]. See Portuguese phonology | |||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|arra'''nh'''ar]] | pronounced as /[ɐʁɐ̃ˈn̠ʲaɾ]/ | 'to scratch' | Dento-alveolo-palatal. | |||
| Quechua: [[Quechua alphabet|'''ñ'''uqa]] | pronounced as /[ˈɲɔqɑ]/ | 'I' | ||||
| Transylvanian dialects | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|câi'''n'''e]] | pronounced as /[ˈkɨɲe̞]/ | 'dog' | Alveolo-palatal. corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: [[Scottish Gaelic alphabet|sei'''nn''']] | pronounced as /[ʃeiɲ̟]/ | 'sing' | Alveolo-palatal. See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |||
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|'''њ'''ој]] / [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|'''nj'''oj]] / | pronounced as /[ɲ̟ȏ̞j]/ | 'to her' | Alveolo-palatal. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Sinhala | / spāññaya | pronounced as /[spaːɲɲəjə]/ | 'Spain' | |||
| Slovak: [[Slovak orthography|peče'''ň''']] | pronounced as /[ˈpɛ̝t͡ʂɛ̝ɲ̟]/ | 'liver' | Alveolar. See Slovak phonology | |||
| Slovene | Some speakers, archaic | Slovenian: [[Slovene orthography|ko'''nj''']] | pronounced as /[ˈkɔ̂nʲ]/ | 'horse' | See Slovene phonology | |
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|espa'''ñ'''ol]] | pronounced as /[e̞späˈɲol]/ | 'Spanish' | Simultaneous alveolo-palatal and dento-alveolar or dento-alveolo-palatal. See Spanish phonology | |||
| Swahili: '''ny'''ama /Swahili: [[Swahili Ajami|'''نْيَ'''امَ]]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[ɲɑmɑ]/ | 'meat' | ||||
| Tamil | Tamil: [[Tamil script|'''ஞா'''யிறு]] / | pronounced as /[ɲaːjiru]/ | 'Sunday' | Alveolo-palatal.[6] See Tamil phonology | ||
| Toki Pona | Some speakers | [[wiktionary:Appendix:Toki Pona/linja|li'''n'''ja]] | [ˈliɲ.(j)a] | 'line' | ||
| '''ny'''am | pronounced as /[ɲam]/ | 'animal' | ||||
| Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|ті'''нь''']] / | pronounced as /[t̪ʲin̠ʲ]/ | 'shadow' | Alveolo-palatal. See Ukrainian phonology | |||
| West Frisian | Western Frisian: '''nj'''onken | pronounced as /[ˈɲoŋkən]/ | 'next to' | Phonemically pronounced as //nj//. See West Frisian phonology | ||
| Hanoi | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''nh'''anh]] / Vietnamese: [[chu Nom|'''''']] | pronounced as /[ȵajŋ̟˧]/ | 'agile, to run fast, vivacious' | "Laminoalveolar". See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| Ha Tinh | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''nh'''a'''nh''']] / Vietnamese: [[chu Nom|'''''']] | pronounced as /[ɲɛɲ˧˥˧]/ | ||||
| Wolof: '''ñ'''aan / Wolof: [[Wolofal alphabet|'''ݧَ'''انْ]] | ||||||
| Wu | Shanghainese | [[Chinese characters|女人]] / | pronounced as /[n̠ʲy˩˧ n̠ʲɪɲ˥˨]/ | 'women' | Alveolo-palatal | |
| Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꑌ]] / | pronounced as /[n̠ʲi˧]/ | 'sit' | Alveolo-palatal. | |||
| Zulu: i'''ny'''oni | pronounced as /[iɲ̟óːni]/ | 'bird' | Alveolo-palatal. | |||
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German: [[German orthography|gä'''ng'''ig]] | pronounced as /[ˈɡ̟ɛŋ̟ɪç]/ | 'common' | Allophone of pronounced as //ŋ// before and after front vowels; the example also illustrates pronounced as /link/. See Standard German phonology | |||
| Lithuanian: [[Lithuanian orthography|me'''n'''kė]] | pronounced as /[ˈmʲæŋ̟k̟eː]/ | 'cod' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before palatalized velars; typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ŋʲ). See Lithuanian phonology | |||
| Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|da'''ñ'''e]] | pronounced as /[ˈθɐɲe̞]/ | 'nest' | ||||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|w'''ę'''giel]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈvɛŋ̟ɡ̟ʲɛl]/ | 'coal' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //kʲ, ɡʲ//. See Polish phonology | |||
| Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|a'''n'''chetă]] | pronounced as /[äŋ̟ˈk̟e̞t̪ə]/ | 'inquiry' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// used before the palatalized allophones of pronounced as //k, ɡ//. Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ŋʲ). See Romanian phonology | |||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|re'''nk''']] | pronounced as /[ˈɾeɲc]/ | 'color' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //c// and pronounced as //ɟ//. See Turkish phonology | |||
| Uzbek: [[Uzbek alphabet|mi'''ng''']] | pronounced as /[miŋ̟]/ | 'thousand' | Word-final allophone of pronounced as //ŋ// after front vowels. | |||
| Hanoi | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|nha'''nh''']] / Vietnamese: [[chu Nom|'''''']] | pronounced as /[ȵajŋ̟˧˧]/ | 'agile, to run fast, vivacious' | Final allophone of pronounced as //ɲ//. See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| lhuwa'''nyng'''u | pronounced as /[l̪uwaŋ̟u]/ | 'strip of turtle fat' | Post-palatal; contrasts with post-velar pronounced as /link/. | |||
pronounced as /navigation/