A voiced bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound which has been observed to occur in about 96% of spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The bilabial nasal occurs in English, and it is the sound represented by "m" in map and rum. Very few languages (e.g. Wyandot) are known to lack this sound. A small number of languages have been observed to lack independent nasal phonemes altogether, such as Quileute, Makah, and Central Rotokas.
Features
Features of a voiced bilabial nasal:
Occurrence + Occurrence of in several languages.Language Word IPA Meaning Notes ǃKung 'eat' Adyghe / 'moon' Arabic Standard () 'capital' See Arabic phonologyArmenian Eastern () 'mother' Assyrian () 'owner' Basque 'to love' Bengali () 'mother' See Bengali phonologyBreton 'sea' Bulgarian () 'fog' Burushaski 'so many' Catalan 'mine' See Catalan phonology Cherokee () 'water' Cantonese / () 'cat' See Cantonese phonology Chukchi 'tent' Chuvash () 'my' Czech 'man' See Czech phonology Dutch 'mouth' See Dutch phonology Dhivehi 'fish' See Dhivehi phonology English map 'map' See English phonology Esperanto 'morning' See Esperanto phonology Estonian madu 'snake' See Estonian phonology Filipino 'chicken' See Filipino phonology Finnish 'man' See Finnish phonology French 'mother' See French phonology Georgian () 'three' See Georgian phonology German 'mouse' See Standard German phonology Greek () 'clump' See Modern Greek phonology Gujarati () 'male peacock' See Gujarati phonology Hawaiian 'eye' See Hawaiian phonology Hmong White Hmong () 'food' or 'rice' Hindi () 'honey' See Hindi-Urdu phonology Hebrew () 'mother' See Modern Hebrew phonology Hungarian 'today' See Hungarian phonology Indonesian 'enter' Italian 'mommy' See Italian phonology Japanese () 'mark' See Japanese phonology Kabardian () 'moon' Kagayanen 'older sister' Kazakh / 'ship' See Kazakh phonology Ket 'woman' See Ket language Khmer () 'Khmer' See Khmer phonology Korean / 'straw sack' See Korean phonology Kurukh 'cattle' Lak () 'Lak' See Lak language Limburgish 'the moon' See Limburgish#Phonology Macedonian () 'mother' See Macedonian phonology Malay 'night' Malayalam () 'shortage' See Malayalam phonology Maltese 'pupil' Mandarin / () 'cat' See Mandarin phonology Marathi () 'mind' See Marathi phonology Mutsun 'night' Nepali () 'mother' See Nepali phonology Norwegian 'mom' See Norwegian phonology Ojibwe () 'accuse' See Ojibwe phonology Odia () 'mother' Persian () 'mother' See Persian phonology Pirahã 'parent' allophone of Polish 'mass' See Polish phonology Portuguese 'bush' See Portuguese phonology Punjabi () 'I' Sanskrit () 'I' See Sanskrit phonology Serbo-Croatian / 'sea' See Serbo-Croatian phonology Slovak 'man' Slovene 'mouse' Spanish 'to suckle' See Spanish phonology Swahili 'trees' Swedish 'a mom' See Swedish phonology Telugu () 'cloud' Occurs as allophone of anuswara when followed by retroflex stops Thai () '' See Thai phonologyToki Pona 'parent' Tsez () 'tongue' Turkish 'Friday' See Turkish phonology Ukrainian () 'milk' See Ukrainian phonology Urdu () 'house' See Hindi-Urdu phonology Uyghur () 'I' Uzbek 'I' Vietnamese 'salt' See Vietnamese phonology Welsh 'mother' See Welsh phonology West Frisian 'lake' See West Frisian phonology Yi () 'bamboo' Zapotec Tilquiapan 'animal'
Palatalized + Occurrence of in several languages.Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Bulgarian () 'place' Contrasts with . See Bulgarian phonology Irish 'I' Contrasts with . See Irish phonology Kildin Saami () 'sea' Kildin Saami contrasts varieties of bilabial nasals in voicedness, length and palatalization. Latgalian 'flour' Contrasts with . See Latgalian phonology Lithuanian 'to close one's eyes' Contrasts with . See Lithuanian phonology Marshallese 'four' Contrasts with . Nenets Tundra Nenets / 'tent' Contrasts with . Forest Nenets миԓи 'lived' Russian () 'copper' Contrasts with . See Russian phonology Veps 'peninsula' Contrasts with .
Velarized + Occurrence of in several languages.Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Gilbertese 'sleep' Contrasts with and . Irish 'if' Contrasts with . See Irish phonology Lithuanian 'mom' Transcribed . Contrasts with . See Lithuanian phonology Marshallese 'caterpillar' Contrasts with . Russian () 'husband' Broadly marked with either velarisation, uvularisation or pharyngealisation. Contrasts with palatalized version. See Russian phonology
See also List of phonetics topics
Notes
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