Nasal consonant

In phonetics, a nasal consonant is a special sound made when the soft roof of the mouth (called the velum) is lowered. This lets air flow out through the nose while making the sound. Most common sounds in languages are made with air flowing out through the mouth, called oral consonants, but nasal consonants are different.

In English, we use three nasal consonants often. These are the sounds at the beginning of words like nose [n], bring [ŋ], and mouth [m]. These sounds are very important for speaking clearly.

Nasal sounds like these are used in almost every human language. Some languages have more kinds of nasal consonants than English does. This shows how useful these sounds are in how people talk.

Definition

Nasal consonants are sounds made when air flows out through the nose instead of the mouth. This happens because the mouth is closed by the lips or tongue. Examples in English include the sounds in "nose," "bring," and "mouth."

Most nasal sounds are made with the voice, like the "n" and "m" sounds. Some languages have nasal sounds made without voice, such as in Burmese, Welsh, Icelandic, and Guaraní.

Voiceless nasals

Some languages have special sounds called voiceless nasal consonants. These sounds are made without using the voice, and air flows through the nose. Languages that use these sounds include Icelandic, Faroese, Burmese, Jalapa Mazatec, Kildin Sami, Welsh, and Central Alaskan Yup'ik. The language Iaai from New Caledonia has many of these sounds.

Other kinds of nasal consonant

There are different types of sounds made with the nose. Some sounds, like the m, n, and ng sounds in English, let air out only through the nose. Other sounds mix air from the nose and mouth.

Languages also use sounds where the nose is used only part of the time. Some languages have special sounds made with the nose, like in Zulu.

Languages without nasals

Some languages do not have special sounds called nasals. This surprised a researcher in 1963, who thought all languages had at least one nasal sound. But there are exceptions!

A few languages, like some Niger–Congo languages and the Pirahã language, don’t have true nasals. In these languages, sounds can change depending on the word. For example, in some Niger–Congo languages, nasal sounds only appear before certain vowels.

Some languages around Puget Sound, like Quileute, Lushootseed, and Makah, have no nasal sounds at all, except maybe in special ways of speaking. This change happened after contact with other cultures. Even in Korean, some nasal sounds are slowly changing into other sounds.