Alveolar nasal - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	n
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	n
Kirshenbaum	n
Sound sample

The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is n, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n. The alveolar nasal occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter "n" in nine or plan. Features of this consonant:

• Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.
• 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 English

English has /n/, and it is denoted by the letter "n". Some dialects of English, including most American English dialects, also have syllabic /n/, as in lemon.

Note that the letter "n" does not always denote the sound /n/. The digraph "ng" is usually pronounced either [ŋ] (velar nasal), as in hang, or [ŋg], as in finger. In most words where "n" is followed by a "k", it is also pronounced as a velar nasal, as in stink. Many speakers may not even be aware of this, and in this context the velar nasal can be considered an allophone of /n/.

In other languages

See also

• List of phonetic topics