Voiced retroflex nasal

Voiced retroflex nasal
Voiced retroflex nasal
ɳ
Audio sample
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	n`
Image

The voiced retroflex nasal is a sound used in some spoken languages. It is in Indian English but is similar to /n/ but your tongue is curled back.

Characteristics

The phonation is voiced. This means that the vocal cords vibrate while the sound is being pronounced.
The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated sub-apical - with the tip of the tongue curled up. But more generally This means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
It is a nasal consonant. This means that air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Bengali					Rare; occurs in the extreme western dialects
Enindhilyagwa		yingarna	[jiŋaɳa]	'snake'
Faroese		ørn	[œɻɳ]	'eagle'
Hindi		ठण्डा/ṭhaṇḍā	[ʈʰəɳɖaː]	'cold'
Kannada		ಅಣೆ/aṇe	[ɐɳe]	'dam'
Khanty	Eastern dialects	eṇə	[eɳə]	'large'
Khanty	Some northern dialects	eṇə	[eɳə]	'large'
Malayalam		അണ/aṇa	[ɐɳɐ]	'jaw'
Nepali		अण्डा/aṇḍā	[ʌɳɖä]	'egg'	See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		garn	[ɡɑːɳ]^ⓘ	'yarn'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ବଣି/baṇi	[bɔɳi]	'old'
Pashto		اتڼ/Ataṇ	[at̪aɳ]^ⓘ	'Attan'
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	ਪੁਰਾਣਾ/purāṇā	[pʊraːɳaː]	'old'
Punjabi	Shahmukhi	پُراݨا/purāṇā	[pʊraːɳaː]	'old'
Swedish	Central Standard	garn	[ɡɑːɳ]^ⓘ	'yarn'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		ஆண்/āṇ	[aːɳ]^ⓘ	'male'	See Tamil phonology
Vietnamese		anh trả	[aɳ˧ ʈa˨˩˦]	'you pay'	Pronunciation of /n/ before the /ʈ/ in Saigon dialect. See Vietnamese phonology

Related pages

Index of phonetics articles