Velar nasal
Encyclopedia : V : VE : VEL : Velar nasal
| IPA – number | 119 |
| IPA – text | |
| IPA – image | 
|
| Entity | ŋ |
| X-SAMPA | N |
| Kirshenbaum | N |
Features
Features of the velar nasal:
- Its manner of articulation is stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
- Its place of articulation is velar which means it is articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum).
- 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.
Varieties of [ŋ]
| IPA | Description |
|---|---|
| ŋ | plain ŋ |
| ŋ̊ | voiceless ŋ |
| ŋ̍ | syllabic ŋ |
| ŋ̈ | breathy voiced ŋ |
| ŋ̃ | creaky voiced ŋ |
In
The velar nasal occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letters 'ng' as in sing; it can be denoted by the letter 'n,' but only before velar consonants such as the letter 'k,' as in bank.
In other languages
The [ŋ] sound is a fairly common sound cross-linguistically. It is unusual in that in many languages it is only permitted in postvocalic positions (after vowels), like in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean. However, in other languages it is permitted at the beginnings of syllables, like in the name of the language Ngaju Dayak; Nenets even inserts it in word-initial position. In Cantonese Chinese, not only is it permitted at the beginning of syllables, but it can be a standalone syllable itself. For instance, the surname Ng (sometimes transliterated as Eng) is a common Cantonese surname and is pronounced [ŋ̩] (呉).
In Ancient Greek it was written with a gamma γ, and it was probably an allophone of /n/, as in Italian, Spanish and Modern Greek. In modern Germanic languages, it is a separate phoneme—originally, it was only an allophone in Germanic, too. Nevertheless, there is a Runic letter that represents [ŋ]. In his book Ancient Scripts And Phonological Knowledge, Gary D. Miller argues that the Runic [ŋ]-letter is composed of two gammas - however, two gammas never represented [ŋ] in Greek, but [ŋɡ]. In Latin, [ŋ] was represented by n before c, g; and by g before n; thus, agnus was pronounced /aŋnus/.
In Northern Sami, [ŋ] is represented by the letter ŋ.
In Finnish, 'nk' represents [ŋk] while 'ng' represents the geminated [ŋŋ]. There is no /g/ in 'ng'. For example, lanka [laŋka] vs. langan [laŋŋan] vs. lannan [lannan].
In Galician [ŋ] is represented by the digraph nh.
In Slavic languages it is an allophone of /n/ before k and g, written g in ng is always pronounced. It can be also pronounced [nk], [ng], but it is not very usual. Examples: banka [baŋka] (or [banka]), bingo [biŋgo] (or [bingo]).
See also
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