Voiced labial–velar nasal

The voiced labial–velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ŋ͡m⟩.

Voiced labial–velar nasal
ŋ͡m
IPA number	119 (114)
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ŋ​͡​m
Unicode (hex)	U+014B U+0361 U+006D
X-SAMPA	Nm

The labial–velar nasal is found in West and Central Africa and eastern New Guinea, as well as in certain contexts in Vietnamese.^[1][2]

Features

Features of the voiced labial–velar 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 place of articulation is labial–velar, which means it is simultaneously articulated with the lips and with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum). The dorsal closure is made and released slightly before the labial closure, but they overlap for most of their duration.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dangme[3]		Dangme	[daŋ͡me]	'Dangme'
Igala[4]		ñmọ	[ŋ͡mɔ̄]	'to drink'	Allophone of /m/. See Igala Phonology
Okinawan		ʻnmu	[ʔŋ͡mu]	'potato'	Allophone of /ɴ/ word-initially.
Vietnamese[5]		đúng	[ɗuŋ͡m]	'correct'	Allophone of /ŋ/ after /u, o, ɔ/. See Vietnamese phonology
Yele		ngmo	[ŋ͡mɔ]	'breast'	Contrasts voiced labial–alveolar nasal and voiced labial–retroflex nasal.

Labialized variant

Some languages, especially in Vanuatu, combine this labial–velar nasal with a labial–velar approximant release, hence [ŋ͡mʷ].

In the Banks Islands languages which have it, the phoneme /ŋ͡mʷ/ is written ⟨m̄⟩ in local orthographies, using a macron on the corresponding bilabial. In other languages of Vanuatu further south (such as South Efate, or Lenakel), the same segment is spelled ⟨m̃⟩ with a combining tilde.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dorig[6]		m̄sar	[ŋ͡mʷsar]	'poor'	Realized with an approximant release.
Lakon		um̄ä	[uŋ͡mʷæ]	'house'
Lenakel[7]		noanəm̃ɨk	[noanəŋ͡mʷɨk]	'egg yolk'
Mwesen[8]		tam̄sar	[taŋ͡mʷsar]	'person'

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Doubly articulated consonant

Notes

1. List of languages with [ŋm] on PHOIBLE
2. Kirby, James (2011). "Vietnamese" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 41 (3): 383.
3. Kropp Dakubu (1987), p. 13.
4. Idakwoji (2014), pp. 425.
5. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
6. François (2010), p. 429.
7. Nehrbass (1994), p. 89.
8. François (2013), p. 200.

References

• François, Alexandre (2010). "Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment" (PDF). Phonology. 27 (3): 393–434. doi:10.1017/s0952675710000205. S2CID 62628417.
• François, Alexandre (2013). "Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu" (PDF). In Mailhammer, Robert (ed.). Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories. Studies in Language Change. Vol. 11. Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton. pp. 185–244.
• Idakwoji, John (2014). An Ígálá-English Lexicon:A Bilingual Dictionary with Notes on Igala Language, History, Culture and Priest-Kings. Partridge Singapore. ISBN 978-1-4828-2787-3.
• Kropp Dakubu, M. E. (1987). The Dangme Language: An Introductory Survey. London: Macmillan.
• Nehrbass, Kenneth (April 1994). Kievit, Dirk; Huttar, George (eds.). A Comprehensive Comparison of Lexemes in the Major Languages of Tanna (PDF). SIL International. ISBN 978-1-55671-276-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-28.
• Thompson, Laurence (1959). "Saigon phonemics". Language. 35 (3): 454–476. doi:10.2307/411232. JSTOR 411232.

External links

• List of languages with [ŋm] on PHOIBLE