Nasal palatal approximant

Nasal palatal approximant
j̃
Encoding
X-SAMPA	j~

The nasal palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some oral languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨j̃⟩, that is, a j with a tilde. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j~, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is ⟨ỹ⟩.

The nasal palatal approximant is sometimes called a nasal yod; [j̃] and [w̃] may be called nasal glides.

Features

Features of the nasal palatal approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard 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, in this case 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

[j̃], written ⟨ny⟩, is a common realization of /j/ before nasal vowels in many languages of West Africa that do not have a phonemic distinction between voiced nasal and oral stops, such as Yoruba, Ewe and Bini languages.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Nheengatu		nheẽ	[j̃ẽʔẽ]	'to speak'	Influenced Brazilian Portuguese ⟨nh⟩ sound. Sometimes written with ⟨ñ⟩
Hindustani[1]		संयम / sanyama	[səj̃jəm]	'patience'	Allophone of /n/ before [j]. See Hindustani phonology
Kaingang[2]		[j̃ũ]		'brave'	Possible word-initial realization of /j/ before a nasal vowel.[3]
Lombard		bisògn de	[biˈzɔj̃ d̪e]	'need for (something)'	Allophone of /ɲ/ before a consonant. See Lombard phonology
Louisiana Creole[4]		[sɛ̃j̃ɛ̃]		'bleed'	Intervocalic allophone of /ɲ/
Polish[5]		państwo	[ˈpãj̃stfɔ]	'state, country'	Allophone of /ɲ/ before fricatives. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian[6]	sonho	[ˈsõj̃ʊ]	'dream'	Allophone of /ɲ/ between vowels, nasalizes the preceding vowel. Language's original /ɲ/ sound.[7][8] See Portuguese phonology
	Most dialects[9]	cães	[kɐ̃j̃s]	'dogs'	Allophone of /j/ after nasal vowels.
	Some dialects[7]	me ame!	[ˈmj̃ɐ̃mi]	'love me!'	Non-syllabic allophone of /i/ between nasal sounds.
Shipibo[10]		^[example needed]			Allophone of /j/ after nasal vowels.[10]
Spanish	Zwolle-Ebarb[11]	año	[ˈãj̃o]	'year'	Allophone of /ɲ/ between vowels, nasalizing the preceding vowel.
	Other dialects, occasional in rapid, unguarded speech[12]	niños	[ˈnij̃os]	'kids'	Allophone of /ɲ/. Because nasality is retained and there is no potential merger with any other Spanish phonemes, this process is rarely noticed, and its geographical distribution has never been determined.
Sakha		айыы	[aȷ̃ɯː]	'sin, transgression'	/ȷ̃/ is not distinguished from /j/ in the orthography.[13]

See also

• Palatal nasal
• Nasal labio-velar approximant
• Labiodental nasal, which may be an approximant in the one language in which it is phonemic
• Voiceless nasal glottal approximant
• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. Canepari (2005:335)
2. Jolkesky (2009:676, 681)
3. Jolkesky (2009:681)
4. Klingler, Thomas A.; Neumann-Holzschuh, Ingrid (2013). "Louisiana Creole". In Susanne Maria Michaelis; Philippe Maurer; Martin Haspelmath; Magnus Huber (eds.). The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Vol. 2: Portuguese-based, Spanish–based, and French-based languages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-967770-2.
5. Gussman (2007)
6. Perini (2002:?)
7. Portuguese vinho: diachronic evidence for biphonemic nasal vowels
8. Mattos e Silva (1991:73)
9. Vigário (2003:77)
10. Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:283)
11. Stark (1980:170)
12. Lipski, John M. (1989). "Spanish yeísmo and the palatal resonants: Towards a unified analysis" (PDF). Probus. 1 (2). doi:10.1515/prbs.1989.1.2.211. S2CID 170139844.
13. "Yakut (Sakha) language and alphabet". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2024-08-01.

References

• Canepari, Luciano (2005), "Hindi", A Handbook of Pronunciation, Lincom Europa, p. 335
• Gussman, Edmund (2007), The Phonology of Polish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-926747-7
• Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009), "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble", Anais do SETA, 3, Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP: 675–685
• Mattos e Silva, Rosa (1991), O Português arcaico – fonologia, Contexto
• Perini, Mário Alberto (2002), Modern Portuguese (A Reference Grammar), New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-09155-7
• Stark, Louisa R. (1980). "Notes on a Dialect of Spanish Spoken in Northern Louisiana". Anthropological Linguistics (in Spanish). 22 (4): 163–176. ISSN 0003-5483. JSTOR 30027771.
• Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109
• Vigário, Marina (2003), The Prosodic Word in European Portuguese, De Gruyter Mouton, ISBN 978-3-11-017713-8

Further reading

• Shosted; Hualde (2010), (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory volume 315) Romance Linguistics 2009: Selected Papers from the 39th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Tucson, Arizona, March 2009, John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 43–61, ISBN 978-90-272-4833-6

External links

• List of languages with [j̃] on PHOIBLE