Palatal nasal - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	ɲ
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	J
Kirshenbaum	n^
Sound sample

The palatal nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɲ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. Compare n and ɲ. The symbol ɲ should not be confused with ɳ, the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem or with ŋ , the symbol for the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem. 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 palatal which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate.
• 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

In some dialects of English, the sequence /nj/ is sometimes realized as the palatal nasal, via coalescence, a type of assimilation. For example, onion (/ˈʌnjən/) might be realized as [ˈʌɲən] or canyon (/ˈkænjən/) might be realized as [ˈkæɲən]. However, there are no minimal pairs for /nj/ and /ɲ/, so the palatal nasal is not a separate phoneme in English.

In other languages

The palatal nasal is fairly common in Romance languages.

Catalan

Catalan has the palatal nasal as a phoneme, and it is denoted by "ny".

French

French has the palatal nasal as a phoneme, and it is denoted by "gn".

Italian

Italian has the palatal nasal as a phoneme, and it is denoted by "gn", as in gnocchi (a type of pasta).

Portuguese

Portuguese has the palatal nasal as a phoneme, and it is denoted by "nh", as in manhã /mɐɲɐ/ (morning).

Spanish

Spanish has the palatal nasal as a phoneme, and it is denoted by "ñ", as in mañana /maɲana/ (morning).