Velar nasal

Velar nasal
ŋ
IPA number	119
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ŋ
Unicode (hex)	U+014B
X-SAMPA	N
Kirshenbaum	N
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The velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ng in English sing. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ŋ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N. The IPA symbol ⟨ŋ⟩ is similar to ⟨ɳ⟩, the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, and to ⟨ɲ⟩, the symbol for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem. Both the IPA symbol and the sound are commonly called 'eng' or 'engma'.

As a phoneme, the velar nasal does not occur in many of the indigenous languages of the Americas or in a large number of European or Middle Eastern or Caucasian languages, but it is extremely common in Australian Aboriginal languages. While almost all languages have /m/ and /n/, /ŋ/ is rarer.^[1] Only half of the 469 languages surveyed in Anderson (2008) had a velar nasal phoneme; as a further curiosity, a large proportion of them limits its occurrence to the syllable coda. In many languages that do not have the velar nasal as a phoneme, it occurs as an allophone of /n/ before velar consonants.

An example of a language that lacks a phonemic or allophonic velar nasal is Russian, in which /n/ is pronounced as laminal denti-alveolar [n̪] even before velar consonants.^[2]

As with the voiced velar stop /ɡ/, the relative rarity of the velar nasal is that the small oral cavity, which is used to produce velar consonants, makes it more difficult for voicing to be sustained. It also makes it much more difficult to allow air to escape through the nose, as is required for a nasal.

Some languages have the pre-velar nasal,^[3] which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar nasal, though not as front as the prototypical palatal nasal - see that article for more information.

Conversely, some languages have the post-velar nasal,^[4] which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of a prototypical velar nasal, though not as back as the prototypical uvular nasal - see that article for more information.

Features

Features of the velar 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 velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue at the soft 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, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.

• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		ngaqë	[ŋɡacə]	'because'
Aleut[5]		chaang	[tʃɑːŋ]	'five'
Armenian	Eastern[6]	ընկեր	[əŋˈkɛɾ]	'friend'	Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants
Assamese		ৰং	[rɔŋ]	'color'
Asturian		pación	[pa.ˈθjoŋ]	'pasture'
Bambara		ŋonI	[ŋoni]	'guitar'
Basque		hanka	[haŋka]	'leg'
Bengali		রঙ	[rɔŋ]	'colour'
Bulgarian[7]		тънко	[ˈtɤŋko]	'thin'
Catalan[8]		sang	[ˈsaŋ(k)]	'blood'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	昂	[ŋɔːŋ˩]	'raise'	See Cantonese phonology
	Eastern Min	疑	[ŋi]	'suspect'
	Gan	牙	[ŋa]	'tooth'
	Hakka	我	[ŋai]	'I'
	Mandarin	北京	[peɪ˨˩tɕiŋ˥]	'Beijing'	See Mandarin phonology
	Northern Min	外	[ŋui]	'outside'
	Pu-Xian Min	黃	[ŋ̍]	'yellow'	Only in colloquial speech.
	Southern Min	吳	[ŋɔ]	'a state in the Zhou dynasty'
	Wu	五	[ŋ˩˧]	'five'
	Xiang	熬	[ŋau]	'to boil'
	Yuci dialect of Jin	我	[ŋie]	'I'
Chukchi		ңыроқ	[ŋəɹoq]	'two'
Czech		tank	[taŋk]	'tank'	See Czech phonology
Dinka		ŋa	[ŋa]	'who'
Danish		sang	[sɑŋˀ]	'song'	See Danish phonology
Dutch[9]		angst	[ɑŋst]	'fear'	See Dutch phonology
English		sing	[sɪŋ]	'sing'	Restricted to the syllable coda. See English phonology
Faroese		ong	[ɔŋk]	'meadow'
Fijian		gone	[ˈŋone]	'child'
Filipino		ngayón	[ŋaˈjon]	'now'
Finnish		kangas	[ˈkɑŋːɑs]	'cloth'	Occurs in native vocabulary only intervocally (as a geminate) and before /k/. See Finnish phonology
French[10]		camping	[kampiŋ]	'camping'	Occurs only in words borrowed from English or Chinese. See French phonology
Galician		unha	[ˈuŋa]	'one' (f.)
German		lang	[laŋ]	'long'	See German phonology
Greek		αποτυγχάνω/apotynchánō	[apo̞tiŋˈxano̞]	'I fail'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew	Standard	אנגלית	[aŋɡˈlit]	'English language'	Allophone of /n/ before velar stops. See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Sephardi	עין	[ŋaˈjin]	'Ayin'	See Sephardi Hebrew
Hiligaynon		buang	[bu'äŋ]	'crazy/mentally unstable'
Hindustani		रंग / رنگ	[rəŋɡ]	'color'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Hungarian		ing	[iŋɡ]	'shirt'	Allophone of /n/. See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		göng	[ˈkœy̯ŋk]	'tunnel'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian		bangun	[bäŋʊn]	'wake up'
Inuktitut		ᐴᙳᐆᖅ/puunnguuq	[puːŋŋuːq]	'dog'
Inuvialuktun		qamnguiyuaq	[qamŋuijuaq]	'snores'
Irish		a nglór	[ˌə̃ ˈŋl̪ˠoːɾˠ]	'their voice'	Occurs word-initially as a result of the consonantal mutation eclipsis. See Irish phonology
Italian[11]		anche	[ˈaŋke]	'also'	See Italian phonology
Itelmen		қниң	[qniŋ]	'one'
Japanese	Standard	南極/nankyoku	[naŋkʲokɯ]	'the South Pole'	See Japanese phonology
	Eastern dialects[12]	鍵/kagi	[kaŋi]	'key'
Kagayanen[13]		manang	[manaŋ]	'older sister'
Kazakh		мың	[məŋ]	'thousand'
Kyrgyz		миң	[miŋ]	'thousand'
Ket		аяң	[ajaŋ]	'to damn'
Korean		방/bang	[paŋ]	'room'	See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish[14]		keng	[kʰæŋ]	'nobody'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		aнглиски	[ˈaŋɡliski]	'English'	Occurs occasionally as an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. See Macedonian phonology
Luganda		ŋaaŋa	[ŋɑːŋɑ]	'hornbill'
Malay		bangun	[bäŋon]	'wake up'
Malayalam[5]		മാങ്ങ	[maːŋŋɐ]	'mango'
Māori[15]		ngā	[ŋaː]	'the'
Marathi		संगणक	[səŋɡəɳək]	'computer'	See Marathi phonology
Mari		еҥ	[jeŋ]	'human'
Nganasan		ӈаӈ	[ŋaŋ]	'mouth'
Nivkh		ңамг	[ŋamɡ]	'seven'
North Frisian	Mooring	kåchelng	[ˈkɔxəlŋ]	'stove'
Norwegian		gang	[ɡɑŋ]	'hallway'	See Norwegian phonology
Punjabi		ਵੰਙ	[vəŋ]	'bangle'
Persian		رنگ	[ræːŋɡ]	'color'	See Persian phonology
Pipil		nemanha	[nemaŋa]	'later'
Polish[16]		bank	[bäŋk]	'bank'	Allophone of /n/ before /k, ɡ, x/; post-palatal before /kʲ, ɡʲ/.[17][18] See Polish phonology
Occitan	Provençal	vin	[viŋ]	'wine'
Rapanui		hanga	[haŋa]	'bay'	Sometimes written ⟨g⟩ in Rapanui
Romanian	Țara Moților Transylvanian[19]	câine	[kɨŋi]	'dog'	Corresponds to [n] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian[20]		станка / stanka	[stâːŋka]	'pause'	Allophone of /n/ before /k, ɡ/.[20] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		comcáac	[koŋˈkaak]	'Seri people'
Shona		nanga	[ŋaŋɡa]	'witch doctor'
Slovene		tank	[taŋk]	'tank'
Spanish[21]		domingo	[d̪o̞ˈmĩŋɡo̞]	'Sunday'	Allophone of /n/. See Spanish phonology
Swahili		ng'ombe	[ŋɔmbɛ]	'cow'
Swedish		ingenting	[ɪŋɛnˈtʰɪŋ]	'nothing'	See Swedish phonology
Thai		งาน	[ŋaːn]	'work'
Tuamotuan		rangi/ragi	[ŋaːn]	'sky'
Tundra Nenets		ӈэва	[ŋæewa]	'head'
Turkish		Ankara	[ˈaŋkaɾa]	'Ankara'	Allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		müň	[myŋ]	'thousand'
Uzbek		ming	[miŋ]	'thousand'
Venetian		man	[maŋ]	'hand'
Vietnamese[22]		ngà	[ŋaː˨˩]	'ivory'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		rhwng	[r̥ʊŋ]	'between'
West Frisian		kening	[ˈkeːnɪŋ]	'king'
Yi		ꉢ/nga	[ŋa˧]	'I'
Yup'ik		ungungssiq	[uŋuŋssiq]	'animal'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[23]	yan	[jaŋ]	'neck'	Word-final allophone of lenis /n/

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Ladefoged (2005:164). The oral counterparts, /p t k/ are found together in almost all languages
2. Jones & Ward (1969:160)
3. Instead of "pre-velar", it can be called "advanced velar", "fronted velar", "front-velar", "palato-velar", "post-palatal", "retracted palatal" or "backed palatal".
4. Instead of "post-velar", it can be called "retracted velar", "backed velar", "pre-uvular", "advanced uvular" or "fronted uvular".
5. Ladefoged (2005), p. 165.
6. Dum-Tragut (2009), p. 19.
7. Sabev, Mitko. "Bulgarian Sound System". Retrieved 31 July 2013.
8. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 53.
9. Gussenhoven (1992), p. 45.
10. Wells (1989), p. 44.
11. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 118.
12. Okada (1991), p. 95.
13. Olson et al. (2010), pp. 206–207.
14. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67–68.
15. Reed (2001).
16. Jassem (2003), p. 103.
17. Gussmann (1974), pp. 107, 111 and 114.
18. Ostaszewska & Tambor (2000), pp. 35, 41 and 86.
19. Pop (1938), p. 31.
20. Landau et al. (1999:67)
21. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 258.
22. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
23. Merrill (2008), p. 109.

Bibliography

• Anderson, Gregory D. S. (2008), "The Velar Nasal", in Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S; Gil, David; et al., The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, retrieved 2008-04-30
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
• Gussmann, Edmund (1974), Fisiak, Jacek, ed., "Nasality in Polish and English" (PDF), Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics, Poznań: Adam Mickiewicz University, 2: 105–122
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages, 1, Wiley-Blackwell
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 94–97, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X
• Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J., III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296
• Ostaszewska, Danuta; Tambor, Jolanta (2000), Fonetyka i fonologia współczesnego języka polskiego, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, ISBN 83-01-12992-1
• Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
• Reed, A.W. (2001), Kāretu, Timoti, ed., The Reed Concise Māori Dictionary
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
• Wells, J.C. (1989), "Computer-Coded Phonemic Notation of Individual Languages of the European Community", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 19 (1): 31–54, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005892