Palatal nasal

Sound sample (help·info)
IPA – number	118
IPA – text	ɲ
IPA – image
entity	ɲ
X-SAMPA	`J`
Kirshenbaum	`n^`

The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɲ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. Compare n and ɲ. The symbol ɲ should not be confused with ɳ, the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem or with ŋ, the symbol for the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem.

1 Features
2 In English
3 In other languages
4 See also

Features

Features of the palatal nasal:

Its manner of articulation is stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Its place of articulation is palatal which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate.
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 English

In some dialects of English, the sequence /nj/ is sometimes realized as the palatal nasal plus a [j]-like offglide, via coalescence, a type of assimilation. For example, onion /ˈʌnjən/ might be realized as [ˈʌɲjən] or canyon /ˈkænjən/ might be realized as [ˈkæɲjən]. However, there are no minimal pairs for [nj] and [ɲj], so the palatal nasal is not a separate phoneme in English.

In other languages

Romance languages

A combination of the palatal nasal with a [j]-like offglide is fairly common in Romance languages:

Catalan

Catalan has [ɲ] or perhaps [ɲj] as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <ny>.

French

French has [ɲ] or perhaps [ɲj] as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <gn>.

IstroRomanian

IstroRomanian has [ɲ] or perhaps [ɲj] as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <ń>.

Italian

Italian has [ɲ] or perhaps [ɲj] as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <gn>, as in gnocchi (a type of pasta).

Portuguese

Portuguese has the palatal nasal as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <nh>, as in manhã [mɐɲɐ̃] (morning).

Spanish

Spanish has the palatal nasal as a phoneme in many dialects, and this is denoted by <ñ>, as in mañana [maɲana] (morning). However, in Mexico <ñ> is a palatalized alveolar nasal, [nʲ]. The difference is this: a true palatal is pronounced with contact between the middle of the tongue and the palate. The front of the tongue is not involved. In a palatalized alveolar (or dental), it is the front of the tongue that makes the contact, as in [n], but the middle of the tongue is simultaneously raised toward the palate, as in [j]. That is, [nʲ] is pronounced like a simultaneous [n] and [j], while [ɲ] or perhaps [ɲj] is palatal, though it may have a [j]-like offglide.

Finnish

The Eastern dialects of Finnish, but not the standard language, retain the feature of palatalization, and the palatal nasal is the palatalized version of /n/. When the palatal nasal is in the position where standard Finnish would use <ni>, it is commonly written <nj>, for example mänj [mæɲ] or perhaps [mæɲj], compare standard language meni [meni].

Hungarian

Hungarian has [ɲ] as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <ny>, as in Ottomány (/ɔt:ɔma:ɲ/). Even when in the final position, it retains its character as /ɲ/ and does not degenerate to /nj/.

Slavic languages

The sound also occurs in Slavic languages, for example in Belarusian <нь>, Polish <ń>, Croatian <nj>, and Slovak and Czech <ň>.

Latvian

This sound is written like Ņ ņ.

Vietnamese

Vietnamese has [ɲ] as a phoneme, and it is denoted by <nh>, as in nhai (/ɲaɪ/) - to chew.