Voiced retroflex nasal

"Retroflex nasal" redirects here. For the voiceless consonant, see Voiceless retroflex nasal.

The voiced retroflex nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɳ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n`.

Voiced retroflex nasal
ɳ
IPA number	117
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɳ
Unicode (hex)	U+0273
X-SAMPA	n`
Braille
Image

Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of an en (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant). It is similar to ⟨ɲ⟩, the letter for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem, and to ⟨ŋ⟩, the letter for the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem.

Features

Features of the voiced retroflex nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Because the consonant is also nasal, the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
• 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, either exclusively (nasal stops) or 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Banglali[1]					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'
	Some northern dialects
Malayalam[2]		അണ/aṇa	[ɐɳɐ]	'jaw'
Marathi		बाण/bāṇa	[baːɳ]	'arrow'	Often realized as a flap in intervocalic and word-final positions. See Marathi phonology
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'
	Shahmukhi	پُراݨا/purāṇā
Scottish Gaelic	Lewis[3]	iutharn	[ˈjʊhʊɳ]	'hell'	Dialectal realisation of /rˠn̪ˠ/.
Swedish	Central Standard[4]	garn	[ɡɑːɳ]ⓘ	'yarn'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil[5]		அணல்/aṇal	[aɳal]	'neck'	See Tamil phonology
Telugu		గొణుగు/goṇugu	[goɳugu]	'murmur'	Occurs as allophone of anuswara when followed by Voiced retroflex plosives.
Vietnamese[6]		anh trả	[aɳ˧ ʈa˨˩˦]	'you pay'	Allophone of /n/ before /ʈ/ in Saigon dialect. See Vietnamese phonology

Voiced retroflex nasal flap

Retroflex nasal flap
ɽ̃
ɳ̆

Features

Features of the retroflex nasal tap or flap:

• Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
• 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, either exclusively (nasal stops) or 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

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Hindi	गणेश Gaṇeśa	[ɡəɽ̃eːʃ]	'Ganesha'	Allophone of /ɳ/ when not in clusters
Ndrumbea[7]	/t̠ɽáɽẽ/	[t̠áɽ̃ã́ɻ̃ẽ]	'to run'	Allophone of /ɽ/ before a nasal vowel
Kangri[8]	न्ह़ौणा	[nɔ̌ɽ̃ɑ]	'to bathe'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles