| Ipa Symbol: | ŋ |
| Ipa Number: | 119 |
| Decimal: | 331 |
| Imagefile: | Velar nasal (vector).svg |
| X-Sampa: | N |
| Braille: | 1246 |
The voiced velar nasal, also known as eng, engma, or agma (from Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἆγμα 'fragment'), is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ng in English sing as well as n before velar consonants as in English and ink. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|ŋ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N. The IPA symbol (IPA|ŋ) is 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|ɲ), the symbol for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem.
While almost all languages have pronounced as //m// and pronounced as //n// as phonemes, pronounced as //ŋ// is rarer.[1] Half of the 469 languages surveyed in had a velar nasal phoneme; as a further curiosity, many of them limit its occurrence to the syllable coda. The velar nasal does not occur in many of the languages of the Americas, the Middle East, or the Caucasus, but it is extremely common among Australian Aboriginal languages, languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asian and Southeast Asian languages, and Polynesian languages. In many languages that do not have the velar nasal as a phoneme, such as the Romance languages, it occurs as an allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar consonants. This kind of assimilation can even be found in languages with phonemic voiced velar nasals, such as English. An example of this phenomenon is the word income; its underlying representation, pronounced as //ˈɪnˌkʌm//, can be realized as either pronounced as /[ˈɪnˌkʌm]/ or pronounced as /[ˈɪŋˌkʌm]/.
An example of a language that lacks a phonemic or allophonic velar nasal is Russian, in which pronounced as //n// is pronounced as laminal denti-alveolar pronounced as /link/ even before velar consonants.
Some languages have the pre-velar nasal,[2] which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar nasal, though not as front as the prototypical palatal nasal - see that article for more information.
Conversely, some languages have the post-velar nasal,[3] which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of a prototypical velar nasal, though not as back as the prototypical uvular nasal.
Features of the voiced velar nasal:
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | Albanian: [[Albanian alphabet|'''n'''gaqë]] | pronounced as /[ŋɡacə]/ | 'because' | |||
| Aleut: chaa'''ng'''/Aleut: ча̄'''ӈ''' | pronounced as /[tʃɑːŋ]/ | 'five' | ||||
| Hejazi | Arabic: مـ'''ـنـ'''ـقل|rtl=yes/ | pronounced as /[mɪŋɡal]/ | 'brazier' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar stops. See Hejazi Arabic phonology | ||
| Armenian: [[Armenian alphabet|ը'''ն'''կեր]]/ | pronounced as /[əŋˈkɛɾ]/ | 'friend' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar consonants | |||
| Assamese: [[Assamese alphabet|ৰং]]/ | pronounced as /[ɹɔŋ]/ | 'color' | ||||
| Asturian | Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: non | pronounced as /[nõŋ]/ | 'no' | Allophone of /n/ in word-final position, either before consonants other than velar stops or vowel-beginning words or before a pause. | ||
| Bambara | Bambara: '''ŋ'''onI | pronounced as /[ŋoni]/ | 'guitar' | |||
| Bashkir: ме'''ң''' / | 'one thousand' | |||||
| Basque | Basque: [[Basque alphabet|ha'''n'''ka]] | pronounced as /[haŋka]/ | 'leg' | |||
| Bengali | Bengali: [[Bengali alphabet|র'''ঙ''']]/ | pronounced as /[ɾɔŋ]/ | 'color' | |||
| Bulgarian[4] | Bulgarian: [[Bulgarian alphabet|тъ'''н'''ко]]/ | pronounced as /[ˈtɤŋko]/ | 'thin' | |||
| Cantonese | [[Chinese characters|昂]]/ | pronounced as /[ŋɔːŋ˩]/ | 'raise' | See Cantonese phonology | ||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|sa'''ng''']] | pronounced as /[ˈsɑ̃ŋ(k)]/ | 'blood' | See Catalan phonology | |||
| Cebuano: ngano | pronounced as /[ˈŋano]/ | 'why' | ||||
| Chamorro: ngånga' | pronounced as /[ŋɑŋaʔ]/ | 'duck' | ||||
| [[Cyrillic script|'''ӈ'''ыроӄ]]/ | pronounced as /[ŋəɹoq]/ | 'three' | ||||
| Czech: [[Czech orthography|ta'''n'''k]] | pronounced as /[taŋk]/ | 'tank' | See Czech phonology | |||
| Dinka: [[Dinka alphabet|'''ŋ'''a]] | pronounced as /[ŋa]/ | 'who' | ||||
| Danish: [[Danish alphabet|sa'''ng''']] | pronounced as /[sɑŋˀ]/ | 'song' | See Danish phonology | |||
| Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|a'''ng'''st]] | pronounced as /[ɑŋst]/ | 'fear' | See Dutch phonology | |||
| Eastern Min | [[Chinese characters|疑]]/ | [ŋi<sup>53</sup>] | 'suspect' | |||
| 'sing' | Restricted to the syllable coda. See English phonology | |||||
| Faroese: o'''n'''g | pronounced as /[ɔŋk]/ | 'meadow' | ||||
| Fijian: '''g'''one | pronounced as /[ˈŋone]/ | 'child' | ||||
| Finnish: [[Finnish alphabet|ka'''ng'''as]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈkɑŋːɑs]/ | 'cloth' | Occurs in native vocabulary only intervocally (as a geminate) and before pronounced as //k//. See Finnish phonology | |||
| Standard | French: [[French orthography|campi'''ng''']] | 'camping' | Occurs only in words borrowed from English or Chinese. See French phonology | |||
| Southern France | French: [[French orthography|pai'''n''']] | 'bread' | For many speakers, [ŋ] acts as a substitute for the nasalization of the preceding vowel, which may still be partially nasal. It is one of the most typical traits of varieties of French influenced by an Occitan substrate. | |||
| Galician | Galician: u'''nh'''a | pronounced as /[ˈuŋa]/ | 'one' (f.) | |||
| Gan | [[Chinese characters|牙]]/ | pronounced as /[ŋa]/ | 'tooth' | |||
| German: [[German orthography|la'''ng''']] | pronounced as /[laŋ]/ | 'long' | See Standard German phonology | |||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Greek alphabet|ά'''γ'''χος]] / | pronounced as /['aŋxo̞s]/ | 'Stress' | See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Hakka | Sixian | [[Chinese characters|我]]/ | pronounced as /[ŋai˨˦]/ | 'I' | ||
| Standard | Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|א'''נ'''גלית]]/ | pronounced as /[aŋɡˈlit]/ | 'English language' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar stops. See Modern Hebrew phonology | ||
| Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|עין]]/ | pronounced as /[ŋaˈjin]/ | 'Ayin' | See Sephardi Hebrew | |||
| Hiligaynon: bua'''ng'''|italic=yes | pronounced as /[bu'äŋ]/ | 'crazy/mentally unstable' | ||||
| Hindustani | Hindi | Hindi: [[Devanagari|रंग]]/Hindi: [[Devanagari|रङ्ग]]/ | pronounced as /[rəŋg]/ | 'color' | See Hindustani phonology | |
| Urdu | Urdu: [[Urdu alphabet|رن٘گ]]/ | |||||
| Fiji Hindustani | Rang | |||||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian orthography|i'''n'''g]] | pronounced as /[iŋɡ]/ | 'shirt' | Allophone of pronounced as //n//. See Hungarian phonology | |||
| Icelandic: [[Icelandic orthography|gö'''n'''g]] | pronounced as /[ˈkœy̯ŋk]/ | 'tunnel' | See Icelandic phonology | |||
| Iloko: '''ng'''al'''ng'''al | pronounced as /[ŋalŋal]/ | 'to chew' | ||||
| Inuktitut: [[Inuktitut syllabics|ᐴ'''ᙳ'''ᐆᖅ]] / | pronounced as /[puːŋŋuːq]/ | 'dog' | ||||
| qam'''ng'''uiyuaq | pronounced as /[qamŋuijuaq]/ | 'snores' | ||||
| Irish: [[Irish orthography|a '''ng'''lór]] | pronounced as /[ˌə̃ ˈŋl̪ˠoːɾˠ]/ | 'their voice' | Occurs word-initially as a result of the consonantal mutation eclipsis. See Irish phonology | |||
| Italian: [[Italian alphabet|a'''n'''che]] | pronounced as /[ˈaŋke]/ | 'also' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //ɡ//. See Italian phonology | |||
| [[Cyrillic script|қни'''ң''']] | pronounced as /[qniŋ]/ | 'one' | ||||
| Standard | Japanese: 南極 / | pronounced as /[naŋkʲokɯ]/ | 'the South Pole' | See Japanese phonology | ||
| Japanese: [[kanji|鍵]] / Japanese: [[Romanization of Japanese|ka'''g'''i]] | pronounced as /[kaŋi]/ | 'key' | ||||
| Javanese: sengak | pronounced as /[səŋak]/ | stink | Additional /ŋ/ caused by vowel after /ŋ/ sounding | |||
| Jin | Yuci | [[Chinese characters|我]]/ | pronounced as /[ŋie]/ | 'I' | ||
| mana'''ng''' | pronounced as /[manaŋ]/ | 'older sister' | ||||
| Kazakh: [[Kazakh alphabets|мы'''ң''']] / Kazakh: my'''ń''' | pronounced as /[məŋ]/ | 'thousand' | ||||
| Kirghiz; Kyrgyz: [[Kyrgyz alphabets|ми'''ң''']]/Kirghiz; Kyrgyz: miñ | pronounced as /[miŋ]/ | |||||
| [[Cyrillic script|ая'''ң''']]/ | pronounced as /[ajaŋ]/ | 'to damn' | ||||
| Khasi: [[Latin script|'''ng'''ap]] | pronounced as /[ŋap]/ | 'honey' | ||||
| See Khmer phonology | ||||||
| Korean: [[hangul|성에]] / | pronounced as /[sʌŋe]/ | 'window frost' | See Korean phonology | |||
| Kurdish | Northern | Kurdish: [[Kurmanji alphabet|ce'''ng''']] | pronounced as /[dʒɛŋ]/ | 'war' | See Kurdish phonology | |
| Central | Kurdish: [[Sorani alphabet|جه'''نگ''']]/Kurdish: ce'''ng''' | |||||
| Southern | ||||||
| Macedonian: [[International Phonetic Alphabet|'''ŋ'''aa'''ŋ'''a]] | pronounced as /[ŋɑːŋɑ]/ | 'hornbill' | ||||
| Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: ke'''ng''' | pronounced as /[kʰæŋ]/ | 'nobody' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |||
| Macedonian: [[Macedonian orthography|a'''нг'''лиски]]/ | pronounced as /[ˈaŋɡliski]/ | 'English' | Occurs occasionally as an allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //ɡ//. See Macedonian phonology | |||
| Malay | Malaysian and Indonesian | Malay: [[Malay alphabet|ba'''ng'''un]] | pronounced as /[ˈbaŋʊn]/ | 'wake up' | ||
| Kelantan-Pattani | sini | [si.niŋ] | 'here' | See Kelantan-Pattani Malay | ||
| Terengganu | ayam | [a.jaŋ] | 'chicken' | See Terengganu Malay | ||
| മാങ്ങ/mān̄n̄a | pronounced as /[maːŋŋɐ]/ | 'mango' | ||||
| Mandarin | Standard | [[Chinese characters|北京]]/Běijīng | pronounced as /[peɪ˨˩tɕiŋ˥]/ | 'Beijing' | Restricted to the syllable coda. See Mandarin phonology | |
| Sichuanese | pronounced as /[ŋɔ˨˩]/ | 'I' | ||||
| Marathi: [[Devanāgarī|रंग]]/ranga | pronounced as /[rəŋə]/ | 'colour' | See Marathi phonology | |||
| еҥ/eng | pronounced as /[jeŋ]/ | 'human' | ||||
| Minangkabau | mangarasau | pronounced as /[mäŋäräsäu̯]/ | 'nonsense' | |||
| Kazakh: [[Mongolian alphabets|тэ'''н'''гэр / te'''ŋ'''ger]] | pronounced as /[teŋger]/ | 'sky' | ||||
| /nang | pronounced as /[nʌŋ]/ | 'nail' | See Nepali phonology | |||
| ӈаӈ/ngang | pronounced as /[ŋaŋ]/ | 'mouth' | ||||
| ңамг/ngamg | pronounced as /[ŋamɡ]/ | 'seven' | ||||
| Northern Frisian: kåchel'''ng'''|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈkɔxəlŋ]/ | 'stove' | ||||
| Northern Min | 外/ngui | pronounced as /[ŋui]/ | 'outside' | |||
| Eastern Finnmark | Northern Sami: maŋis|italic=yes | pronounced as /[mɒːŋiːs]/ | 'behind' | |||
| Western Finnmark | Northern Sami: máŋga|italic=yes | pronounced as /[mɑːŋˑka]/ | 'many' | [ŋ] has merged with [ɲ] in Western Finnmark, except before velar stops. | ||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|ga'''ng''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ɡɑŋ]/ | 'hallway' | See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Oriya: [[Odia script|ଏବଂ]]/ebang | pronounced as /[ebɔŋ]/ | 'and' | ||||
| nkai | pronounced as /[ŋkai]/ | 'to' | Allophone of [n] before velars, before consonants in an onset cluster, and also word-finally in some dialects. | |||
| Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: [[:wikt:یڭی|ی'''ڭ'''ی]]/yeŋi | 'new' | |||||
| Panjabi | Gurmukhi | ਰੰਗ/rang | pronounced as /[rəŋ]/ | 'color' | ||
| Shahmukhi | /rang | |||||
| pronounced as /[ræŋg]/ | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar plosives. See Persian phonology | |||||
| nema'''nh'''a|italic=yes | pronounced as /[nemaŋa]/ | 'later' | ||||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|ba'''n'''k]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[bäŋk]/ | 'bank' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //k, ɡ, x//; post-palatal before pronounced as //kʲ, ɡʲ//. See Polish phonology | |||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|ma'''n'''ga]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈmɐ̃(ŋ)ɡɐ]/ | 'mango' | Occurs occasionally in slow, careful speech, as an allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //ɡ// and pronounced as //k//, when the speaker does not delete the pronounced as //n// by fusing it with the preceding vowel. | |||
| Occitan (post 1500);: [[Latin orthography|vi'''n''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[viŋ]/ | 'wine' | ||||
| Rapanui: [[Latin script|ha'''ng'''a]] | pronounced as /[haŋa]/ | 'bay' | Sometimes written (g) in Rapanui | |||
| Romanian | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|câi'''n'''e]] | pronounced as /['kɨŋi]/ | 'dog' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Samoan: '''g'''a'''g'''ana | pronounced as /[ŋaˈŋana]/ | 'language' | ||||
| [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|sta'''n'''ka]]|italic=yes / [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|ста'''н'''ка]] | pronounced as /[stâːŋka]/ | 'pause' | Allophone of pronounced as //n// before pronounced as //k, ɡ, x//. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| [[Seri alphabet|co'''m'''cáac]] | pronounced as /[koŋˈkaak]/ | 'Seri people' | ||||
| n'anga | pronounced as /[ŋaŋɡa]/ | 'traditional healer' | ||||
| Slovenian: ta'''n'''k | pronounced as /[ˈt̪âːŋk]/ | 'tank' | ||||
| Southern Min | Hokkien | 黃/n̂g | pronounced as /[ŋ̍˨˦]/ | 'yellow' | ||
| Teochew | 黃/ng5 | [ŋ̍<sup>55</sup>] | ||||
| All dialects | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|domi'''n'''go]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[d̪o̞ˈmĩŋɡo̞]/ | 'Sunday' | Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants. See Spanish phonology | ||
| Galician Spanish, Andalusian, Canarian, and most Caribbean dialects | alquitrán | [{{IPA|alkiˈtɾaŋ}}] | 'tar' | Allophone of /n/ in word-final position regardless of what follows. | ||
| ng'ombe | pronounced as /[ŋombɛ]/ | 'cow' | ||||
| Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|i'''ng'''enti'''ng''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ɪŋɛnˈtʰɪŋ]/ | 'nothing' | See Swedish phonology | |||
| Tagalog: [[Filipino orthography|'''ng'''ayón]] | pronounced as /[ŋaˈjon]/ | 'now' | ||||
| இங்கே/in̄gē | pronounced as /[iŋgeː]/ | 'here' | ||||
| Telugu | Telugu: వా'''ఙ్మ'''యం | pronounced as /[ʋaːŋmajam]/ | 'Literature' | Allophone of anuswara when followed by velar stop | ||
| Tibetan | Standard | ང/nga | [ŋa˩˧] | 'I' | ||
| Thai: [[Thai alphabet|'''ง'''าน]]/ngaan | pronounced as /[ŋaːn]/ | 'work' | ||||
| '''ŋ'''a|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ŋa]/ | 'who?' or 'Is who?' | ||||
| Tonga (Tonga Islands);: [[Tongan alphabet|ta'''ng'''ata]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[taŋata]/ | 'man' | ||||
| Thai: [[Latin script|ra'''ng'''i / ra'''g'''i]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[raŋi]/ | 'sky' | ||||
| [[Cyrillic script|'''ӈ'''эва]]/ŋəwa | pronounced as /[ŋæewa]/ | 'head' | ||||
| Tupi | monhang | [mɔɲaŋ] | 'to make' | See Tupian Phonology | ||
| Turkmen: [[Turkmen alphabet|mü'''ň''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[myŋ]/ | 'thousand' | ||||
| '''nɡ'''ɡwon|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ŋɡʷən]/ | 'child' | ||||
| Uzbek: [[Uzbek alphabet|mi'''ng''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[miŋ]/ | 'thousand' | ||||
| [[Latin script|ma'''n''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[maŋ]/ | 'hand' | ||||
| Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''ng'''à]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ŋaː˨˩]/ | 'ivory' | See Vietnamese phonology | |||
| Welsh: [[Latin script|rhw'''ng''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[r̥ʊŋ]/ | 'between' | ||||
| Western Frisian: keni'''ng'''|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈkeːnɪŋ]/ | 'king' | ||||
| Wu | 五/ng | pronounced as /[ŋ˩˧]/ | 'five' | |||
| Xhosa: i'''ng'''<nowiki/>'a'''ng'''<nowiki/>'ane|italic=yes | pronounced as /[iŋaŋaːne]/ | 'hadada ibis' | ||||
| Xiang | 熬/ngau | pronounced as /[ŋau]/ | 'to boil' | |||
| Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꉢ]]/Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|'''ng'''a]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ŋa˧]/ | 'I' | ||||
| Yupik languages: u'''ng'''u'''ng'''ssiq | pronounced as /[uŋuŋssiq]/ | 'animal' | ||||
| yan | pronounced as /[jaŋ]/ | 'neck' | Word-final allophone of lenis pronounced as //n// | |||
pronounced as /navigation/