Nasal palatal approximant

The nasal palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some oral languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨j̃⟩, that is, a j with a tilde. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j~, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is ⟨ỹ⟩.

Nasal palatal approximant
j̃
Encoding
X-SAMPA	j~

The nasal palatal approximant is sometimes called a nasal yod; [j̃] and [w̃] may be called nasal glides.

Features

Features of the nasal palatal approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, in this case in addition to through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

[j̃], written ⟨ny⟩, is a common realization of /j/ before nasal vowels in many languages of West Africa that do not have a phonemic distinction between voiced nasal and oral stops, such as Yoruba, Ewe and Bini languages.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Nheengatu		nheẽ	[j̃ẽʔẽ]	'to speak'	Influenced Brazilian Portuguese ⟨nh⟩ sound. Sometimes written with ⟨ñ⟩
Hindustani[1]		संयम / sanyama	[səj̃jəm]	'patience'	Allophone of /n/ before [j]. See Hindustani phonology
Kaingang[2]		[j̃ũ]		'brave'	Possible word-initial realization of /j/ before a nasal vowel.[3]
Lombard		bisògn de	[biˈzɔj̃ d̪e]	'need for (something)'	Allophone of /ɲ/ before a consonant. See Lombard phonology
Louisiana Creole[4]		[sɛ̃j̃ɛ̃]		'bleed'	Intervocalic allophone of /ɲ/
Polish[5]		państwo	[ˈpãj̃stfɔ]	'state, country'	Allophone of /ɲ/ before fricatives. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian[6]	sonho	[ˈsõj̃ʊ]	'dream'	Allophone of /ɲ/ between vowels, nasalizes the preceding vowel. Language's original /ɲ/ sound.[7][8] See Portuguese phonology
	Most dialects[9]	cães	[kɐ̃j̃s]	'dogs'	Allophone of /j/ after nasal vowels.
	Some dialects[7]	me ame!	[ˈmj̃ɐ̃mi]	'love me!'	Non-syllabic allophone of /i/ between nasal sounds.
Shipibo[10]		[example needed]			Allophone of /j/ after nasal vowels.[10]
Spanish	Zwolle-Ebarb[11]	año	[ˈãj̃o]	'year'	Allophone of /ɲ/ between vowels, nasalizing the preceding vowel.
	Other dialects, occasional in rapid, unguarded speech[12]	niños	[ˈnij̃os]	'kids'	Allophone of /ɲ/. Because nasality is retained and there is no potential merger with any other Spanish phonemes, this process is rarely noticed, and its geographical distribution has never been determined.
Sakha		айыы	[aȷ̃ɯː]	'sin, transgression'	/ȷ̃/ is not distinguished from /j/ in the orthography.[13]

See also

• Palatal nasal
• Nasal labio-velar approximant
• Labiodental nasal, which may be an approximant in the one language in which it is phonemic
• Voiceless nasal glottal approximant
• Index of phonetics articles