Voiced bilabial nasal

The voiced bilabial nasal is a type of consonant. It is used in almost all spoken languages. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨m⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is ⟨m⟩. The English language has this sound, and it is the sound represented by "m" in map and rum.

Bilabial nasal
m
IPA number114
Encoding
Entity (decimal)m
Unicode (hex)U+006D
X-SAMPAm
Kirshenbaumm
Sound

 

Nearly all languages contain this sound. A few languages (for example, Mohawk) do not often use this sound.

Features

  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. It means that we produce this sound by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
  • Its phonation is voiced. It means that the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • We produce it at bilabial. It means that we produce this sound with both lips.
  • It is a nasal consonant. It means that air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.

Examples

Language Word IPA Meaning
Arabic Standard[1] مطابخ [mɑˈtˤɑːbiχ] 'kitchens'
Catalan[2] mare [ˈmaɾə] 'mother'
Chinese Cantonese /<span title="Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Language/data/ISO 639 override' not found. transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">maan5 [maːn˩˧] 'night'
Mandarin 母親/<span title="Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Language/data/ISO 639 override' not found. transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">mǔqīn [mu˨˩ tɕʰin˥] 'mother'
Dutch[3] mond [mɔnt] 'mouth'
English him [hɪm] 'him'
Finnish minä [minæ] 'I'
French[4] manger [mɑ̃ʒe] 'to eat'
Georgian[5] სა [ˈsɑmi] 'three'
Greek[6] μάζα/<span title="Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Language/data/ISO 639 override' not found. transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">maza [ˈmaza] 'clump'
Hawaiian[7] maka [maka] 'eye'
Indonesian[8] masuk [ˈmasuʔ] 'enter'
Italian[9] mamma [ˈmamma] 'mamma'
Japanese[10] 乾杯/<span title="Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Language/data/ISO 639 override' not found. transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">kampai [kampai] 'a toast'
Malay malam [malam] 'night'
Malayalam[7] കമ്മി [kəmmi] 'shortage'
Polish[11] masa [ˈmasa] 'mass'
Portuguese[12] mato [ˈmatu] 'bush'
Russian[13] муж [muʂ] 'husband'
Spanish[14] grumete [ɡɾuˈme̞te̞] 'cabin boy'
Vietnamese[15] muối [mwoj˧ˀ˥] 'salt'
Zapotec Tilquiapan[16] man [maŋ] 'animal'

Voiced Bilabial Nasal Media

References

  1. Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727
  2. Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
  3. Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID 243772965
  4. Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
  5. Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659, S2CID 53481687
  6. Newton, Brian (1972), The generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cabridge Studies in Linguistics, vol. 8, Cambridge University Press, p. 10
  7. 7.0 7.1 Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell, pp. 139, 165
  8. Soderberg, Craig D.; Olson, Kenneth S. (2008), "Illustrations of the IPA:Indonesian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (2): 210, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003320, S2CID 232349531
  9. Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628, S2CID 232345223
  10. Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 94, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X, S2CID 242782215
  11. Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191, S2CID 232349472
  12. Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 91, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
  13. Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 42, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID 13470826
  14. Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373, S2CID 232344066
  15. Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 458–461, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
  16. Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 108, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344, S2CID 232350024