Voiced velar nasal

The voiced velar nasal, also known as eng, engma, or agma (from Greek ἆγμα âgma 'fragment'), is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ng in English sing as well as n before velar consonants as in English and ink. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ŋ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N. The IPA symbol ⟨ŋ⟩ is similar to ⟨ɳ⟩, the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, and to ⟨ɲ⟩, the symbol for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem.

Voiced velar nasal
ŋ
IPA number	119
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ŋ
Unicode (hex)	U+014B
X-SAMPA	N
Braille
Image

While almost all languages have /m/ and /n/ as phonemes, /ŋ/ is rarer. Half of the 469 languages surveyed in Anderson (2008) had a velar nasal phoneme; as a further curiosity, many of them limit its occurrence to the syllable coda. The velar nasal does not occur in many of the languages of the Americas, the Middle East, or the Caucasus, but it is extremely common among Australian Aboriginal languages, languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asian and Southeast Asian languages, and Polynesian languages. In many languages that do not have the velar nasal as a phoneme, such as the Romance languages, it occurs as an allophone of /n/ before velar consonants. This kind of assimilation can even be found in languages with phonemic voiced velar nasals, such as English. An example of this phenomenon is the word income; its underlying representation, /ˈɪnˌkʌm/, can be realized as either [ˈɪnˌkʌm] or [ˈɪŋˌkʌm].

An example of a language that lacks a phonemic or allophonic velar nasal is Russian, in which /n/ is pronounced as laminal denti-alveolar [n̪] even before velar consonants.

Some languages have the pre-velar nasal, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar nasal, though not as front as the prototypical palatal nasal - see that article for more information.

Conversely, some languages have the post-velar nasal, which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of a prototypical velar nasal, though not as back as the prototypical uvular nasal.

Features

Features of the voiced 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 velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• 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
Albanian		ngaqë	[ŋɡacə]	'because'
Aleut		chaang/ча̄ӈ	[tʃɑːŋ]	'five'
Arabic	Hejazi ^[citation needed]	مــنــقل/mingal	[mɪŋɡal]	'brazier'	Allophone of /n/ before velar stops. See Hejazi Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	ընկեր/ënker	[əŋˈkɛɾ]	'friend'	Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants
Assamese		ৰং/ŗông	[ɹɔŋ]	'color'
Asturian		non	[nõŋ]	'no'	Allophone of /n/ in word-final position, either before consonants other than velar stops or vowel-beginning words or before a pause.
Bambara		ŋonI	[ŋoni]	'guitar'
Bashkir		мең / meñ		'one thousand'
Basque		hanka	[haŋka]	'leg'
Bengali		রঙ/rông	[ɾɔŋ]	'color'
Bulgarian		тънко/tănko	[ˈtɤŋko]	'thin'
Cantonese		昂/ngòhng	[ŋɔːŋ˩]	'raise'	See Cantonese phonology
Catalan		sang	[ˈsaŋ(k)]	'blood'	See Catalan phonology
Cebuano		ngano	[ˈŋano]	'why'
Chamorro		ngånga'	[ŋɑŋaʔ]	'duck'
Chukchi		ӈыроӄ/ṇyroq	[ŋəɹoq]	'three'
Czech		tank	[taŋk]	'tank'	See Czech phonology
Dinka		ŋa	[ŋa]	'who'
Danish		sang	[sɑŋˀ]	'song'	See Danish phonology
Dutch		angst	[ɑŋst]	'fear'	See Dutch phonology
Eastern Min		疑/ngì	[ŋi^53]	'suspect'
English		sing		'sing'	Restricted to the syllable coda. See English phonology
Faroese		ong	[ɔŋk]	'meadow'
Fijian		gone	[ˈŋone]	'child'
Finnish		kangas	[ˈkɑŋːɑs]	'cloth'	Occurs in native vocabulary only intervocally (as a geminate) and before /k/. See Finnish phonology
French	Standard	camping		'camping'	Occurs only in words borrowed from English or Chinese. See French phonology
	Southern France	pain		'bread'	For many speakers, [ŋ] acts as a substitute for the nasalization of the preceding vowel, which may still be partially nasal. It is one of the most typical traits of varieties of French influenced by an Occitan substrate.
Galician		unha	[ˈuŋa]	'one' (f.)
Gan		牙/nga	[ŋa]	'tooth'
German		lang	[laŋ]	'long'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		άγχος / anchos	['aŋxo̞s]	'Stress'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hakka	Sixian	我/ngô	[ŋai˨˦]	'I'
Hebrew	Standard	אנגלית/anglit	[aŋɡˈlit]	'English language'	Allophone of /n/ before velar stops. See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Sephardi	עין/nayin	[ŋaˈjin]	'Ayin'	See Sephardi Hebrew
Hiligaynon		buang	[bu'äŋ]	'crazy/mentally unstable'
Hindustani	Hindi	रंग/रङ्ग/raṅg	[rəŋg]	'color'	See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	رن٘گ/raṅg
	Fiji Hindustani	Rang
Ho		maraṅ	[maraŋ]	'big'
Hungarian		ing	[iŋɡ]	'shirt'	Allophone of /n/. See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		göng	[ˈkœy̯ŋk]	'tunnel'	See Icelandic phonology
Ilocano		ngalngal	[ŋalŋal]	'to chew'
Inuktitut		ᐴᙳᐆᖅ / puunnguuq	[puːŋŋuːq]	'dog'
Inuvialuktun		qamnguiyuaq	[qamŋuijuaq]	'snores'
Irish		a nglór	[ˌə̃ ˈŋl̪ˠoːɾˠ]	'their voice'	Occurs word-initially as a result of the consonantal mutation eclipsis. See Irish phonology
Italian		anche	[ˈaŋke]	'also'	Allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. See Italian phonology
Itelmen		қниң	[qniŋ]	'one'
Japanese	Standard	南極 / nankyoku	[naŋkʲokɯ]	'the South Pole'	See Japanese phonology
	Eastern dialects	鍵 / kagi	[kaŋi]	'key'
Javanese		sengak	[səŋak]	stink	Additional /ŋ/ caused by vowel after /ŋ/ sounding
Jin	Yuci	我/ngie	[ŋie]	'I'
Kagayanen		manang	[manaŋ]	'older sister'
Karelian		ongi	[ˈoŋɡi]	'fishing rod'	Occurs only before /g/, /k/ and /kk/.
Kazakh		мың / myń	[məŋ]	'thousand'
Kyrgyz		миң/miñ	[miŋ]
Ket		аяң/ajaņ	[ajaŋ]	'to damn'
Khasi		ngap	[ŋap]	'honey'
Khmer		ងាយ / ngéay កសាង / kâsang	[ŋiəj] [kɑːsaːŋ]	'easy' 'to build'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		성에 / seonge	[sʌŋe]	'window frost'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Northern	ceng	[dʒɛŋ]	'war'	See Kurdish phonology
	Central	جه‌نگ/ceng
	Southern
Luganda		ŋaaŋa	[ŋɑːŋɑ]	'hornbill'
Luxembourgish		keng	[kʰæŋ]	'nobody'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		aнглиски/angliski	[ˈaŋɡliski]	'English'	Occurs occasionally as an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. See Macedonian phonology
Malay	Malaysian and Indonesian	bangun	[ˈbaŋʊn]	'wake up'
	Kelantan-Pattani	sini	[si.niŋ]	'here'	See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
	Terengganu	ayam	[a.jaŋ]	'chicken'	See Terengganu Malay
Malayalam		മാങ്ങ/mān̄n̄a	[maːŋŋɐ]	'mango'
Mandarin	Standard	北京/Běijīng	[peɪ˨˩tɕiŋ˥]	'Beijing'	Restricted to the syllable coda. See Mandarin phonology
	Sichuanese	我/ngo^3	[ŋɔ˨˩]	'I'
Marathi		रंग/ranga	[rəŋə]	'colour'	See Marathi phonology
Mari		еҥ/eng	[jeŋ]	'human'
Minangkabau		mangarasau	[mäŋäräsäu̯]	'nonsense'
Mongolian		тэнгэр / teŋger	[teŋger]	'sky'
Nepali		नङ/nang	[nʌŋ]	'nail'	See Nepali phonology
Nganasan		ӈаӈ/ngang	[ŋaŋ]	'mouth'
Nivkh		ңамг/ngamg	[ŋamɡ]	'seven'
North Frisian	Mooring	kåchelng	[ˈkɔxəlŋ]	'stove'
Northern Min		外/ngui	[ŋui]	'outside'
Northern Sámi	Eastern Finnmark	maŋis	[mɒːŋiːs]	'behind'
	Western Finnmark	máŋga	[mɑːŋˑka]	'many'	[ŋ] has merged with [ɲ] in Western Finnmark, except before velar stops.
Norwegian		gang	[ɡɑŋ]	'hallway'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ଏବଂ/ebang	[ebɔŋ]	'and'
Okinawan		nkai	[ŋkai]	'to'	Allophone of [n] before velars, before consonants in an onset cluster, and also word-finally in some dialects.
Ottoman Turkish		یڭی/yeŋi		'new'
Panjabi	Gurmukhi	ਰੰਗ/rang	[rəŋ]	'color'
	Shahmukhi	رنگ/rang
Persian	Iranian Persian		[ræŋg]		Allophone of /n/ before velar plosives. See Persian phonology
Pipil		nemanha	[nemaŋa]	'later'
Polish		bank	[bäŋk]	'bank'	Allophone of /n/ before /k, ɡ, x/; post-palatal before /kʲ, ɡʲ/. See Polish phonology
Portuguese		manga	[ˈmɐ̃(ŋ)ɡɐ]	'mango'	Occurs occasionally in slow, careful speech, as an allophone of /n/ before /ɡ/ and /k/, when the speaker does not delete the /n/ by fusing it with the preceding vowel.
Occitan	Provençal	vin	[viŋ]	'wine'
Rapanui		hanga	[haŋa]	'bay'	Sometimes written ⟨g⟩ in Rapanui
Romanian	Țara Moților Transylvanian	câine	['kɨŋi]	'dog'	Corresponds to [n] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Samoan		gagana	[ŋaˈŋana]	'language'
Serbo-Croatian		stanka / станка	[stâːŋka]	'pause'	Allophone of /n/ before /k, ɡ, x/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		comcáac	[koŋˈkaak]	'Seri people'
Shona		n'anga	[ŋaŋɡa]	'traditional healer'
Slovene		tank	[ˈt̪âːŋk]	'tank'
Southern Min	Hokkien	黃/n̂g	[ŋ̍˨˦]	'yellow'
	Teochew	黃/ng^5	[ŋ̍^55]
Spanish	All dialects	domingo	[d̪o̞ˈmĩŋɡo̞]	'Sunday'	Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants. See Spanish phonology
	Galician Spanish, Andalusian, Canarian, Andean, and most Caribbean dialects	alquitrán	[alkiˈtɾaŋ]	'tar'	Allophone of /n/ in word-final position regardless of what follows.
Swahili		ng'ombe	[ŋombɛ]	'cow'
Swedish	Standard	ingenting	[ɪŋɛnˈtʰɪŋ]	'nothing'	See Swedish phonology
	Southern Västerbotten	ngiv	[ˈŋiːv]	'knife'
Tagalog		ngayón	[ŋaˈjon]	'now'
Tamil		இங்கே/in̄gē	[iŋgeː]	'here'
Telugu		వాఙ్మయం	[ʋaːŋmajam]	'Literature'	Allophone of anuswara when followed by velar stop
Tibetan	Standard	ང/nga	[ŋa˩˧]	'I'
Thai		งาน/ngaan	[ŋaːn]	'work'
Nuer - Thok Nath		ŋa	[ŋa]	'who?' or 'Is who?'
Tongan		tangata	[taŋata]	'man'
Tuamotuan		rangi / ragi	[raŋi]	'sky'
Tundra Nenets		ӈэва/ŋəwa	[ŋæewa]	'head'
Tupi		monhang	[mɔɲaŋ]	'to make'	See Tupian Phonology
Turkmen		müň	[myŋ]	'thousand'
Tyap		nɡɡwon	[ŋɡʷən]	'child'
Uzbek		ming	[miŋ]	'thousand'
Venetian		man	[maŋ]	'hand'
Vietnamese		ngà	[ŋaː˨˩]	'ivory'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		rhwng	[r̥ʊŋ]	'between'
West Frisian		kening	[ˈkeːnɪŋ]	'king'
Wu		五/ng	[ŋ˩˧]	'five'
Xhosa		ing'ang'ane	[iŋaŋaːne]	'hadada ibis'
Xiang		熬/ngau	[ŋau]	'to boil'
Yi		ꉢ/nga	[ŋa˧]	'I'
Yup'ik		ungungssiq	[uŋuŋssiq]	'animal'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	yan	[jaŋ]	'neck'	Word-final allophone of lenis /n/

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Eng (letter)

Notes

1. Ladefoged (2005), p. 164. The oral counterparts /p, t, k/ are found together in almost all languages
2. Jones & Ward (1969), p. 160.
3. Instead of "pre-velar", it can be called "advanced velar", "fronted velar", "front-velar", "palato-velar", "post-palatal", "retracted palatal" or "backed palatal".
4. Instead of "post-velar", it can be called "retracted velar", "backed velar", "pre-uvular", "advanced uvular" or "fronted uvular".
5. Ladefoged (2005), p. 165.
6. Dum-Tragut (2009), p. 19.
7. Sabev, Mitko. "Bulgarian Sound System". Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
8. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 53.
9. Gussenhoven (1992), p. 45.
10. Wells (1989), p. 44.
11. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 118.
12. Okada (1999), p. 118.
13. Olson et al. (2010), pp. 206–207.
14. Jeskanen, Matti; Jahn, Eila (2022). "Karjalan grammari kaikella rahvahalla 1" [Karelian Grammar to Commoners 1] (PDF) (in Karelian and Finnish). Karjalan Kielet ry. University of Eastern Finland. pp. 13, 19. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2024.
15. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67–68.
16. Aikio & Ylikoski (2022), p. 151.
17. Jassem (2003), p. 103.
18. Gussmann (1974), pp. 107, 111 and 114.
19. Ostaszewska & Tambor (2000), pp. 35, 41 and 86.
20. Pop (1938), p. 31.
21. Landau et al. (1999), p. 67
22. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 258.
23. Söderström, Sven (1980). Hössjömålet: ordbok över en sydvästerbottnisk dialekt (2. uppl ed.). Umeå: Dialekt- och ortnamnsarkivet. ISBN 978-91-970358-1-1.
24. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFThompson1959 (help)
25. Merrill (2008), p. 109.

References

• Aikio, Ante; Ylikoski, Jussi (2022), "North Saami", in Bakró-Nagy, Marianne; Laakso, Johanna; Skribnik, Elena (eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages, Oxford Guides to the World's Languages, Oxford University Press, pp. 147–177, doi:10.1093/oso/9780198767664.003.0010, ISBN 978-0-19-876766-4

• Anderson, Gregory D. S. (2008), "The Velar Nasal", in Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S; Gil, David; et al. (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, retrieved 2008-04-30
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID 243772965
• Gussmann, Edmund (1974), Fisiak, Jacek (ed.), "Nasality in Polish and English" (PDF), Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics, 2, Poznań: Adam Mickiewicz University: 105–122
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-15300-3
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages, vol. 1, Wiley-Blackwell
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 (inactive 1 November 2024){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344 (inactive 1 November 2024){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
• Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
• Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J. III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296, S2CID 38504322
• Ostaszewska, Danuta; Tambor, Jolanta (2000), Fonetyka i fonologia współczesnego języka polskiego, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, ISBN 83-01-12992-1
• Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
• Reed, A.W. (2001), Kāretu, Tīmoti (ed.), The Reed Concise Māori Dictionary
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
• Söderström, Sven (1980), Ordbok över en sydvästerbottnisk dialekt. På grundval av Evert Larssons samlingar, ISBN 91-970358-1-5
• Wells, J.C. (1989), "Computer-Coded Phonemic Notation of Individual Languages of the European Community", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 19 (1): 31–54, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005892, S2CID 145148170

External links

• List of languages with [ŋ] on PHOIBLE