Voiceless dental and alveolar nasals

A voiceless alveolar nasal is a type of consonant in some languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent the sound are ⟨n̥⟩ and ⟨n̊⟩, combinations of the letter for the voiced alveolar nasal and a diacritic indicating voicelessness above or below the letter.

Voiceless alveolar nasal
n̥
IPA number	116+402A
Audio sample
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	n_0
Image

Features

Features of a voiceless alveolar 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.
• There are four specific variants of [n̥]:
  • Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
  • Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is un-voiced, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Iaai		hnââ	[n̪̊ɔɔ]	small	Contrasts /m̥ m̥ʷ n̪̊ ɳ̊ ɲ̊ ŋ̊/ and their voiced versions.

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Aleut		uhngix	[un̥ɣix]	'older sister (of a male)'	Voiced approximants and nasals may be partly devoiced in contact with a voiceless consonant and at the end of a word.
Alutiiq		pat'shnarluni	[pat.sn̥aχluni]	'(weather) is cold'	Contrasts with voiced /n/.
Burmese		နှစ်/hnac	[n̥ɪʔ]	'two'
Central Alaskan Yup'ik		ceńa	[t͡səˈn̥a]	'edge'
English	RP	chutney	[ˈt̠ʃʌˈt͡n̥ːɪ]	chutney
		cotton	[ˈkɒˈtn̥̍]	cotton
	Some dialects	knee	[n̥iː]	knee	Occurs in several dialects. Maybe same as /n/ instead.
Estonian		lasn	[ˈlɑsn̥]	'wooden peel'	Word-final allophone of /n/ after /t, s, h/. See Estonian phonology
Hmong	White Hmong	𖬆𖬰𖬩 / hnub	[n̥u˥]	'day'	Contrasts with voiced /n/. In Green Mong, it has merged with /n/.
Icelandic		hnífur	[ˈn̥iːvʏr̥]	'knife'	See Icelandic phonology
Jalapa Mazatec		hne	[n̥ɛ]	'falls'	Contrasts with a voiced and a laryngealized alveolar nasal.
Kildin Sami		чоӊтэ/čohnte	[t͡ʃɔn̥te]	'to turn'
Northern Sámi		váhnen	[ˈvaːn̥en]	'parent'
Polish		kupn	[ˈkupn̥]	'purchase, acquisition' (genitive plural)	Word-final allophone of /n/ after voiceless consonants. See Polish phonology
Welsh		fy nhad	[və n̥aːd]	'my father'	Occurs as the nasal mutation of /t/. See Welsh phonology
Xumi	Lower	[n̥ɑ̃˦]		'fur, animal hair'	Contrasts with the voiced /n/.
	Upper	[n̥ɔ̃˦]

Post-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Faroese		einki / onki	[ˈɔn̠̊t͡ʃɪ]	'nothing'	See Faroese phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles