Labiodental nasal

IPA – number	115
IPA – text	ɱ
IPA – image
Entity	ɱ
X-SAMPA	F
Kirshenbaum	M
Sound sample (help·info)

The labiodental nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɱ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is F. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter m with a leftward hook protruding from the lower right of the letter. Occasionally it is instead transcribed as an <m> with a dental diacritic: [m̪].

It is pronounced very similarly to the bilabial nasal [m], except instead of the lips touching each other, the lower lip touches the upper teeth. The position of the lips and teeth is generally the same as for the production of the other labiodental consonants, like [f] and [v], though closure is obviously incomplete for the fricatives.

The labiodental nasal has not been confirmed to exist as a separate phoneme in any language. It has been reported from the Kukuya dialect of Teke, where it is "accompanied by strong protrusion of both lips". However, there is some doubt that a true stop can be made by this gesture.^[1]

Nevertheless, it is extremely common phonetically, as it is the nearly universal allophone of /m/ (and sometimes /n/) before the labiodental fricatives [f] and [v], as in English comfort or circumvent.

Features

Features of the labiodental nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
• Its place of articulation is labiodental which means it is articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth.
• 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.

Occurrence

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Notes

References

• Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddieson (1996), Sounds of the World's Languages, Blackwells
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 243-247

bn:দন্তৌষ্ঠ্য নাসিক্যধ্বনি

br:Kensonenn gweuz-dent dre fri mouezhiet cs:Labiodentální nazála de:Stimmhafter labiodentaler Nasal es:Nasal labiodental fr:Consonne occlusive nasale labio-dentale voisée ko:순치 비음 it:Nasale labiodentale lv:Labiodentāls nazāls līdzskanis ja:唇歯鼻音 pl:Spółgłoska nosowa wargowo-zębowa ru:Губно-зубной носовой согласный sv:Labiodental nasal