A voiced alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the sound in nice. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is .
The vast majority of languages have either an alveolar or dental nasal. There are a few languages that lack either sound but have , such as Yoruba, Palauan, and colloquial Samoan (however, these languages all have . An example of a language without and is Edo). There are some languages (e.g. Rotokas) that lack both and .
True dental consonants are relatively uncommon. In the Romance, Dravidian, and Australian languages, n is often called "dental" in the literature. However, the rearmost contact, which gives a consonant its distinctive sound, is actually alveolar or denti-alveolar. The difference between the Romance languages and English is not so much where the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth but the part of the tongue that makes contact. In English, it is the tip of the tongue (such sounds are termed apical), but in the Romance languages, it is the flat of the tongue just above the tip (such sounds are called laminal).
However, there are languages with true apical dental n. It is found in the Mapuche language of South America, where it is actually interdental. A true dental generally occurs allophonically before in the languages that have it, as in English tenth. Similarly, a denti-alveolar allophone occurs in languages that have denti-alveolar stops, as in Spanish cinta.
Some languages contrast laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar nasals. For example, in the Malayalam pronunciation of Nārāyanan, the first n is dental, the second is retroflex, and the third alveolar.
A voiced postalveolar nasal occurs in a number of Australian Aboriginal languages, including Djeebbana and Jingulu.
Features
Features of a voiced alveolar nasal:
- There are four specific variants of :
- Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
- Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
- Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
- Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
Occurrence
Dental or denti-alveolar
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2"|Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Belarusian || / || || 'new' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Bulgarian || / || || 'woman' || Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" |Bengali
|
|
|ˈclose'
|Allophone of after and before denti-alveolar . See Bengali phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Catalan
|General|| || || 'to sing' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Catalan phonology
|-
|Central, North-Western
|punt
|[ˈpun̪]
|'point'
|Laminal denti-alveolar. Word-final realisation of /nt/ in dialects of Catalonia; Valencian retains [nt].
|-
| colspan="2" |Chuvash
|/
|[ʃɒn̪a]
|'a fly'
|-
| Dutch || Belgian || || || 'niece'|| Laminal denti-alveolar, sometimes simply alveolar. See Dutch phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | English || month || || 'month' || Interdental. Allophone of before .
|-
| colspan="2" | Esperanto || || || 'one who hopes' || See Esperanto phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Finnish || || || 'beach' || Allophone of before .
|-
| colspan="2" | French || || || 'connection'|| Laminal denti-alveolar, sometimes simply alveolar. See French phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Greek || / || || 'flower' || Interdental. Allophone of . See Modern Greek phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" |Hindustani
| Hindi
| /
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" | 'new'
| rowspan="2" | See Hindi–Urdu phonology
|-
| Urdu
| /
|-<!-- prev revision had "𖬒𖬲[[Pahawh Hmong|𖬬" is that correct to just link that part -->
| Hmong
| White Hmong || / || || 'eat'
|-
| colspan="2" | Hungarian || || || 'grandma' || Laminal denti-alveolar. See Hungarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Italian || || || 'to sing' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Italian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Irish || || || 'nine' || Velarized.
|-
| colspan="2" |Japanese
|涙/namida
|[n̪ämʲid̪ä]
|'tear'
|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Japanese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kashubian || || || 'shower' || align="left" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kazakh || // || || 'it seemed' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before .
|-
| colspan="2" | Kyrgyz || / || || 'in the authority' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before .
|-
| colspan="2" | Latvian || || || 'night' || Laminal denti-alveolar. See Latvian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Macedonian|| / || || 'nose' || Laminal denti-alveolar. See Macedonian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Malayalam ||/ || ||'dog'||Interdental for some speakers. See Malayalam phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Mapudungun || || || 'male cousin on father's side' || Interdental.
|-
| colspan="2" |Marathi
|/
|
|'fingernail'
|See Marathi phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Nepali
|
|
|'fraɡrance'
|Allophone of /n/ in neighbourhood of /t̪, t̪ʰ, d̪, d̪ʱ/.
|-
| colspan="2" | Polish || || || 'nose' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Alveolar before . See Polish phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Portuguese || General || || || 'nostril'|| Laminal denti-alveolar. May nasalize preceding vowel (especially if stressed). Has as allophone, forming from clusters with , and before .
|-
| Vernacular Paulista || || || 'perceiving' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of after a stressed nasal vowel in more stigmatized varieties. See Portuguese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Romanian || || || 'hazelnut' || Laminal denti-alveolar. See Romanian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Russian || / || || 'our' || Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Scottish Gaelic || || || 'nature' || Velarized. Contrasts with alveolar and palatal .
|-
| colspan="2" | Serbo-Croatian || / || || 'student' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Serbo-Croatian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Slovene || || || 'con artist' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Slovene phonology
|-
| Spanish || Most dialects || || || 'to sing' || Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Spanish phonology
|-
|Swahili
|Bajuni dialect
|//
|
|'rat'
|Dental. Orthography is variable.
|-
| colspan="2" | Tamil || / || || 'country' || See Tamil phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Telugu || / || || 'To chew' || Occurs as an allophone of anuswara when followed by dental stops.
|-
| colspan="2" | Ukrainian || / || || 'our' || Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Uzbek || // || [n̪imæ]|| 'what'|| Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
|}
Alveolar
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2"|Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Adyghe || /nėfnė |||| 'light'||
|-
| Arabic||Standard|| /nūr ||||'light' || See Arabic phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Assyrian|| ܢܘܪܐ/nōra || ]|| 'mirror'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Basque|| || || 'I' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || /naak/nāk |||| 'nose'|| See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Cantonese|| 年/nìhn|| [ni:n˨˩] || 'year' || See Cantonese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Catalan|| || || 'snow'|| See Catalan phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Czech || || || 'on'|| See Czech phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Dutch || || || 'night'|| See Dutch phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | English || nice || || | 'nice' || See English phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Finnish || || || 'I give' || See Finnish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | German || fünf || || 'five' || See German phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Georgian || /k'ani ||||'skin'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Greek || / || || 'communion wine'|| See Modern Greek phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Gujarati || /nahi |||| 'no' || See Gujarati phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Hawaiian || || || 'to shake'|| See Hawaiian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Hebrew || /navon |||| 'wise'|| See Modern Hebrew phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Italian || || || 'dwarf'|| See Italian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Irish || || || 'peak' || Palatalized.
|-
| colspan="2" | Khmer || || || 'kingdom' || See Khmer phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Korean || /|| || 'Country'|| See Korean phonology
|-
| rowspan="3" |Kurdish
|Northern
|
|
| rowspan="3" |'animal'
| rowspan="3" |See Kurdish phonology
|-
|Central
| rowspan="2" |/gîyânlabar
|
|-
|Southern
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Kyrgyz || /banan || || 'banana' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Malay || || || 'cooked rice' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Malayalam || ||[äːnə] ||'elephant'||See Malayalam phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Maltese|| || || 'truncheon' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Mandarin
|難/难/
|
|'difficult'
|See Mandarin phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Mapudungun || || || 'enough' ||
|-
| Ngwe||Mmockngie dialect ||colspan="2" align="center" | || 'sun'||
|-
| colspan="2" |Nepali
|/nakkal
|
|'imitation'
|See Nepali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Odia || /nāka |||| 'nose'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Okinawan || || ||'potato'|| Can occur as onset, nucleus, or coda. Allophone of [m], [ŋ], and [ɴ] in coda, but phonemic elsewhere.
|-
| colspan="2" |Persian
|نون/nun
|[nun]
|'bread'
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Pirahã || || ||'you'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Polish || || || 'punch' || Allophone of (which is normally laminal denti-alveolar ) before . See Polish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Punjabi ||ਨੱਕ/nakk||||'nose'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Scottish Gaelic || || || 'breath' || Contrasts with velarised dental and palatal .
|-
| colspan="2" | Slovak || || || 'on' ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | Slovene
|Common|| || || 'news' ||
|-
|Some speakers
|
|
|'horse'
|See Slovene phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Spanish || || || 'nothing' || See Spanish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Swahili
|ndizi
|[n̩dizi]
|'banana'
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Tagalog || || || 'thin' || Tagalog phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Thai
|/
|[nɔːn]
|'sleep'
|See Thai phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Toki Pona
|noka
|[noka]
|'foot'
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Turkish || || || 'reason'|| See Turkish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Tamil || /manasu || || 'mind', 'heart' || See Tamil phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Vietnamese || || || 'you're going' || Occurs only before alveolar consonants. See Vietnamese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Welsh || || || 'grandmother'||See Welsh phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Western Apache|| || || 'cache'||
|-
| colspan="2" | West Frisian|| || || 'neck'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Yi ||/ || || 'hurt'||
|-
| Zapotec|| Tilquiapan || nanɨɨ || || 'lady' || contrasts with a fortis alveolar nasal that is not represented in the orthography.
|}
Postalveolar
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" |Bengali
|
|
|'voice'
|Allophone of after and before postalveolar . See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Catalan || || || 'belly' || Allophone of before , may be alveolo-palatal instead. See Catalan phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Djeebbana || barnmarramarlón̠a || || 'they two swam' || Result of rhotic plus alveolar .
|-
| English || Australian || enrol || || 'enrol' || Allophone of before . See Australian English phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Italian || || || 'angel' || Palatalized laminal; allophone of before . See Italian phonology
|}
Variable
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| rowspan="2" |English || Scottish || rowspan="2" | nice || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'nice' || rowspan="2" |
Laminal denti-alveolar for some speakers, alveolar for other speakers.
|-
| Welsh
|-
| German || Standard || || || 'lance' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar, laminal alveolar and apical alveolar. See Standard German phonology
|-
| Norwegian || Urban East || || || 'man' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and laminal alveolar. See Norwegian phonology
|-
| Swedish || Central Standard || || || 'now' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and alveolar, with the former being predominant. See Swedish phonology
|}
See also
- Index of phonetics articles