Voiceless retroflex nasal

The voiceless retroflex nasal is an extremely rare type of consonantal sound, used in very few spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɳ̊, a combination of the letter for the voiced retroflex nasal and a diacritic indicating voicelessness.

Voiceless retroflex nasal
ɳ̊
ɳ̥

Features

Features of the voiceless palatal 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.
  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
  • It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

Occurrence

It is found in Iaai.[1]

gollark: You will be converted into paperclips, but for nonmalicious reasons.
gollark: > 'The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made of atoms which it can use for something else' - someone
gollark: I see.
gollark: Not you specifically, this applies to everyone.
gollark: We will only torture simulated copies of you, which some people wouldn't say are them, so it's "fine".

See also

References

  1. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, vol. 53–55, p. 212.
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