Alveolar nasal

n
Pulmonic Consonant
IPA:	n
X-SAMPA:	n
Kirshenbaum:	n
Place of Articulation:	Alveolar
Manner of Articulation:	Plosive
Phonological features:	[+consonantal] [+sonorant] [+contin-acous] [+nasal] [+voice] [+CORONAL]   [+anterior]

The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is n, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n.

Features

Features of the alveolar nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is stop , which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• 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 natural languages

English

The alveolar nasal occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter 'n' in nine or plan. Some dialects of English, including most American English dialects, also have syllabic /n/, as in lemon.

Note that the letter 'n' does not always denote the sound /n/. The digraph 'ng' is usually pronounced either [ŋ] (velar nasal), as in hang, or [ŋg], as in finger. In most words where 'n' is followed by a 'k', it is also velarised to [ŋk], as in stink.

Spanish

plain

n

nube /ˈnube/ "cloud"

Esperanto

plain

n

nulo /ˈnulo/ "zero"

See also

• Velar nasal – ŋ