Voiceless dental and alveolar nasals

Voiceless alveolar nasal
n̥
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The voiceless alveolar nasal is a sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is ⟨n̥⟩, combinations of the letter for the voiced alveolar nasal and a diacritic indicating voicelessness below the letter. It is not in English.

Features

Sagittal section of a voiceless alveolar nasal

Features of a voiceless alveolar nasal:

• The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is alveolar. This means that this sound is produced with the tip of the tongue (apical) or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (laminal).
• It is a nasal consonant. This means that air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Aleut		uhngix/у’нгих	[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. Realization of /n/.
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˦]

Dental

Voiceless dental nasal
n̪̊

A voiceless dental nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.

Related pages

• Voiced alveolar nasal