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Velar nasal
ŋ
IPA number	119
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ŋ
Unicode (hex)	U+014B
X-SAMPA	N
Kirshenbaum	N
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The velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ng in English sing. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ŋ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N. The IPA symbol ⟨ŋ⟩ is similar to ⟨ɳ⟩, the symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, and to ⟨ɲ⟩, the symbol for the palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem. Both the IPA symbol and the sound are commonly called 'eng' or 'engma'.

As a phoneme, the velar nasal does not occur in many of the indigenous languages of the Americas or in a large number of European or Middle Eastern or Caucasian languages, but it is extremely common in Australian Aboriginal languages. While almost all languages have /m/ and /n/, /ŋ/ is rarer.^[1] Only half of the 469 languages surveyed in Anderson (2008) had a velar nasal phoneme; as a further curiosity, a large proportion of them limits its occurrence to the syllable coda. In many languages that do not have the velar nasal as a phoneme, it occurs as an allophone of /n/ before velar consonants. An example of it used this way is the English word ingredient, which can be pronounced as either [ɪnˈɡriːdiənt] or [ɪŋˈɡriːdiənt].

An example of a language that lacks a phonemic or allophonic velar nasal is Russian, in which /n/ is pronounced as laminal denti-alveolar [n̪] even before velar consonants.^[2]

Some languages have the pre-velar nasal,^[3] which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar nasal, though not as front as the prototypical palatal nasal - see that article for more information.

Conversely, some languages have the post-velar nasal,^[4] which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of a prototypical velar nasal, though not as back as the prototypical uvular nasal.

Features

Features of the velar nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Because the consonant is also nasal, the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.


• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft 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, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.


• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.


• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		ngaqë	[ŋɡacə]	'because'
Aleut[5]		chaang	[tʃɑːŋ]	'five'
Arabic	Some speakers	إنكار‎	[ʔɪŋˈkʰɑːr]	'denial'	Allophone of /n/ before /k/; more commonly realized as [n].
Armenian	Eastern[6]	ընկեր	[əŋˈkɛɾ]	'friend'	Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants
Assamese		ৰং	[rɔŋ]	'color'
Bambara		ŋonI	[ŋoni]	'guitar'
Basque		hanka	[haŋka]	'leg'
Bengali		রঙ	[rɔŋ]	'colour'
Bulgarian[7]		тънко	[ˈtɤŋko]	'thin'
Catalan[8]		sang[clarification needed]	[ˈsaŋ(k)]	'blood'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	昂	[ŋɔːŋ˩]	'raise'	See Cantonese phonology
	Eastern Min	疑	[ŋi]	'suspect'
	Gan	牙	[ŋa]	'tooth'
	Hakka	我	[ŋai]	'I'
	Mandarin	北京	[peɪ˨˩tɕiŋ˥]	'Beijing'	Restricted to the syllable coda. See Mandarin phonology
	Northern Min	外	[ŋui]	'outside'
	Southern Min	黃	[ŋ̍]	'yellow'	Only in colloquial speech.
	Sichuanese	我	[ŋɔ]	'I'
	Wu	五	[ŋ˩˧]	'five'
	Xiang	熬	[ŋau]	'to boil'
	Yuci dialect of Jin	我	[ŋie]	'I'
	Chukchi		ӈыроӄ	[ŋəɹoq]	'three'
Czech		tank	[taŋk]	'tank'	See Czech phonology
Dinka		ŋa	[ŋa]	'who'
Danish		sang	[sɑŋˀ]	'song'	See Danish phonology
Dutch[9]		angst	[ɑŋst]	'fear'	See Dutch phonology
English		sing	[sɪŋ]	'sing'	Restricted to the syllable coda. See English phonology
Faroese		ong	[ɔŋk]	'meadow'
Fijian		gone	[ˈŋone]	'child'
Filipino		ngayón	[ŋaˈjon]	'now'
Finnish		kangas	[ˈkɑŋːɑs]	'cloth'	Occurs in native vocabulary only intervocally (as a geminate) and before /k/. See Finnish phonology
French[10]		camping	[kɑ̃piŋ]	'camping'	Occurs only in words borrowed from English or Chinese. See French phonology
Galician		unha	[ˈuŋa]	'one' (f.)
German		lang	[laŋ]	'long'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		άγχος/anchos	['aŋxo̞s]	'Stress'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew	Standard	אנגלית‎	[aŋɡˈlit]	'English language'	Allophone of /n/ before velar stops. See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Sephardi	עין	[ŋaˈjin]	'Ayin'	See Sephardi Hebrew
Hiligaynon		buang	[bu'äŋ]	'crazy/mentally unstable'
Hindustani		रंग / رنگ‎	[rəŋɡ]	'color'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Hungarian		ing	[iŋɡ]	'shirt'	Allophone of /n/. See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		göng	[ˈkœy̯ŋk]	'tunnel'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian		bangun	[bäŋʊn]	'wake up'
Inuktitut		ᐴᙳᐆᖅ/puunnguuq	[puːŋŋuːq]	'dog'
Inuvialuktun		qamnguiyuaq	[qamŋuijuaq]	'snores'
Irish		a nglór	[ˌə̃ ˈŋl̪ˠoːɾˠ]	'their voice'	Occurs word-initially as a result of the consonantal mutation eclipsis. See Irish phonology
Italian[11]		anche	[ˈaŋke]	'also'	See Italian phonology
Itelmen		қниң	[qniŋ]	'one'
Japanese	Standard	南極/nankyoku	[naŋkʲokɯ]	'the South Pole'	See Japanese phonology
	Eastern dialects[12]	鍵/kagi	[kaŋi]	'key'
Kagayanen[13]		manang	[manaŋ]	'older sister'
Kazakh		мың/myń	[məŋ]	'thousand'
Kyrgyz		миң	[miŋ]	'thousand'
Ket		аяң	[ajaŋ]	'to damn'
Khasi		ngap	[ŋap]	'honey'
Korean		방/bang	[pɐŋ]	'room'	See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish[14]		keng	[kʰæŋ]	'nobody'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		aнглиски	[ˈaŋɡliski]	'English'	Occurs occasionally as an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. See Macedonian phonology
Luganda		ŋaaŋa	[ŋɑːŋɑ]	'hornbill'
Malay		bangun	[bäŋon]	'wake up'
Malayalam[5]		മാങ്ങ	[maːŋŋɐ]	'mango'
Māori[15]		ngā	[ŋaː]	'the'
Marathi		रंग	[rəŋə]	'colour'	See Marathi phonology
Mari		еҥ	[jeŋ]	'human'
Nganasan		ӈаӈ	[ŋaŋ]	'mouth'
Nivkh		ңамг	[ŋamɡ]	'seven'
North Frisian	Mooring	kåchelng	[ˈkɔxəlŋ]	'stove'
Norwegian		gang	[ɡɑŋ]	'hallway'	See Norwegian phonology
Punjabi		ਵੰਙ	[vəŋ]	'bangle'
Persian		رنگ‎	[ræːŋɡ]	'color'	See Persian phonology
Pipil		nemanha	[nemaŋa]	'later'
Polish[16]		bank	[bäŋk]	'bank'	Allophone of /n/ before /k, ɡ, x/; post-palatal before /kʲ, ɡʲ/.[17][18] See Polish phonology
Portuguese		manga	[ˈmɐ̃(ŋ)ɡɐ]	'mango'	Occurs occasionally in slow, careful speech, as an allophone of /n/ before /ɡ/ and /k/, when the speaker does not delete the /n/ by fusing it with the preceding vowel.
Occitan	Provençal	vin	[viŋ]	'wine'
Rapanui		hanga	[haŋa]	'bay'	Sometimes written ⟨g⟩ in Rapanui
Romanian	Țara Moților Transylvanian[19]	câine	[kɨŋi][stress?]	'dog'	Corresponds to [n] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Sanskrit		मङ्गलम्	[ˈməŋɡələm]	'auspicious'	Occurs in all Indic languages, but is traditionally written out in full for Sanskrit.
Serbo-Croatian[20]		станка / stanka	[stâːŋka]	'pause'	Allophone of /n/ before /k, ɡ/.[20] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		comcáac	[koŋˈkaak]	'Seri people'
Shona		nanga	[ŋaŋɡa]	'witch doctor'
Slovene		tank	[taŋk]	'tank'
Spanish[21]	All dialects	domingo	[d̪o̞ˈmĩŋɡo̞]	'Sunday'	Allophone of /n/ before velar stops. See Spanish phonology
	Galician Spanish, Andalusian, Canarian, and most Latin American dialects	alquitrán	[alkitˈɾaŋ]	'tar'	Allophone of /n/ in word-final position, either before consonants other than velar stops or vowel-beginning words or before a pause.
Swahili		ng'ombe	[ŋombɛ]	'cow'
Swedish		ingenting	[ɪŋɛnˈtʰɪŋ]	'nothing'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		இங்கே	[iŋgeː]	'here'
Thai		งาน	[ŋaːn]	'work'
Tuamotuan		rangi/ragi	[raŋi]	'sky'
Tundra Nenets		ӈэва	[ŋæewa]	'head'
Turkish		Ankara	[ˈaŋkaɾa]	'Ankara'	Allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		müň	[myŋ]	'thousand'
Uzbek		ming	[miŋ]	'thousand'
Venetian		man	[maŋ]	'hand'
Vietnamese[22]		ngà	[ŋaː˨˩]	'ivory'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		rhwng	[r̥ʊŋ]	'between'
West Frisian		kening	[ˈkeːnɪŋ]	'king'
Yi		ꉢ/nga	[ŋa˧]	'I'
Yup'ik		ungungssiq	[uŋuŋssiq]	'animal'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[23]	yan	[jaŋ]	'neck'	Word-final allophone of lenis /n/

See also

• Index of phonetics articles


• Eng (letter)

Notes

References