Labiodental nasal

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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.

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] 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.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Czech		tramvaj	[ˈtraɱvaj]	'tram'	See Czech phonology
Dutch	Belgian[2]	omvallen	[ˈʔɔɱvɑlə]	'to fall over'	See Dutch phonology
English		symphony	[ˈsɪɱfəni]	'symphony'	See English phonology
Finnish		informaatio	[ˈiɱfo̞rˌmɑːt̪io̞]	'information'	See Finnish phonology
Greek		έμβρυο	[ˈe̞ɱvrio̞]	'embryo'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		[ɱwiː]		'white/gray hair'
Italian[3]		invece	[iɱˈvetʃe]	'on the contrary'	See Italian phonology
Norwegian		komfyr	[kɔɱˈfyːɾ]	'stove'	See Norwegian phonology
Slovene		simfonija	[siɱfɔˈnija]	'tram'
Spanish[4]		influencia	[ĩɱˈflwẽ̞nθja]	'influence'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		amfibie	[aɱˈfiːˌbjɛ]	'amphibia'	See Swedish phonology

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

[edit] Notes

[edit] 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

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post-​alve​olar Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ p̪͡f Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.