Uvular nasal

The uvular nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɴ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N\.

[edit] Features

Features of the uvular nasal:

Its manner of articulation is stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Its place of articulation is uvular which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) against or near the uvula.
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.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Georgian	ზინყი	[ziɴqʼi]	'hip joint'	allophone of /n/
Inuit language	saarnii	[saːɴiː]	'his bones'	See Inuit phonology
Japanese	日本/nihon	[ɲihoɴ]	'Japan'	See Japanese phonology
Klallam	sqəyáyŋəxʷ	[sqəˈjajɴəxʷ]	'big tree'	contrasts with glottalized form.
Spanish^[1]	enjuto	[e̞ɴˈχuto̞]	'dry'	See Spanish phonology

Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259

Consonants (List, table)