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Voiced bilabial nasal facts for kids

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"Bilabial nasal" redirects here. For the voiceless consonant, see Voiceless bilabial nasal.
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Bilabial nasal
m
IPA number 114
Encoding
Entity (decimal) m
Unicode (hex) U+006D
X-SAMPA m
Kirshenbaum m
 

The 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 ⟨m⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m. 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

Voiced bilabial nasal.svg

Features of the voiced bilabial 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 bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
  • 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 intercostal muscles and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Varieties

IPA Description
m plain m
mʲ palatalised
mˠ velarised
mˤ pharyngealized

Occurrence

Occurrence of /m/ in several languages.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
!Kung m [m] 'eat'
Adyghe мазэ/māză [maːza] 'moon'
Arabic Standard مطابخ/maṭābiḫ [maˈtˤɑːbɪχ] 'kitchens' See Arabic phonology
Armenian Eastern մայր/mayr 'mother'
Assyrian ܡܪܐ/mara [maːra] 'owner'
Basque maitatu [majt̪at̪u] 'to love'
Bengali মা/ma [ma] 'mother' See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian мъгла/măgla [mɐɡla] 'fog'
Catalan meu [ˈmeʊ̯] 'mine' See Catalan phonology
Cherokee ᎠᎹ/ama [ama˦] 'water'
Chinese Cantonese 猫 / māau 'cat' See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin 猫 / māo See Mandarin phonology
Chukchi Mанэгран [maneɣɻan] 'tent'
Chuvash манăн/manăn 'my'
Czech muž 'man' See Czech phonology
Dutch mond 'mouth' See Dutch phonology
Dhivehi mas [mas̪] 'fish' See Dhivehi phonology
English him 'him' See English phonology
Esperanto tempo 'time' See Esperanto phonology
Filipino manok [maˈnok] 'chicken' See Filipino phonology
Finnish minä 'I' See Finnish phonology
French manger 'to eat' See French phonology
Georgian სამი/sami [ˈsɑmi] 'three'
German Maus 'mouse' See Standard German phonology
Greek μάζα / maza 'clump' See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati મોર / mōr [moːɾ] 'male peacock' See Gujarati phonology
Hawaiian maka [maka] 'eye' See Hawaiian phonology
Hindi मधु/madhū [məd̪ʱuː] 'honey' See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hebrew אמא/ima [ˈʔimäʔ] 'mother' See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian ma 'today' See Hungarian phonology
Indonesian masuk [ˈmäsʊʔ] 'enter'
Italian mamma 'mommy' See Italian phonology
Japanese 豆 / mame [mäme̞] 'bean' See Japanese phonology
Kabardian мазэ/mazè [maːza] 'moon'
Kagayanen manang [manaŋ] 'older sister'
Kazakh кеме / keme [keme] 'ship' See Kazakh phonology
Khmer ខ្មែរ / khmêr [kʰmae] 'Khmer' See Khmer phonology
Korean 마을 / maeul [mɐɯl] 'village' See Korean phonology
Limburgish moer [muːʁ] 'carrot' Common. Example from the Weert dialect.
Lithuanian mama [ˈmɐmɐ] 'mom'
Macedonian мајка/majka [ˈmajka] 'mother' See Macedonian phonology
Malay malam [mäläm] 'night'
Malayalam കമ്മി/kammi [kəmmi] 'shortage'
Maltese ilma [ilma] 'water'
Marathi मन/man [mən] 'mind' See Marathi phonology
Mutsun muruṭ [muɾuʈ] 'night'
Nepali आमा/āmā [ämä] 'mother' See Nepali phonology
Norwegian mamma [ˈmɑmːɑ] 'mom' See Norwegian phonology
Ojibwe ᐊᓈᒥᒻ/anaamim [ənaːˈmɪm] 'accuse' See Ojibwe phonology
Odia ମା/mä [mä] 'mother'
Persian مادر/mâdar [mɒdær] 'mother' See Persian phonology
Pirahã baíxi [ˈmàí̯ʔì] 'parent' allophone of /b/
Polish masa 'mass' See Polish phonology
Portuguese mato 'bush' See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi ਮੈਂ/mēm̐ [mɛ̃ː] 'I'
Russian муж/muzh 'husband' Contrasts with palatalized version. See Russian phonology
Sanskrit अहम् /aham [əhəm] 'I' See Sanskrit phonology
Serbo-Croatian мој / moj [mȏːj] 'my' See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak muž [mu̞ʂ] 'man'
Slovene miš [mîʃ] 'mouse'
Spanish grumete [ɡɾuˈme̞te̞] 'cabin boy' See Spanish phonology
Swahili miti [ˈmiti] 'trees'
Swedish mask [mask] 'worm' See Swedish phonology
Telugu మబ్బు [mabːu] 'cloud' Occurs as allophone of anuswara when followed by retroflex stops
Thai มอมแมม / mommaem [mɔːm.mɛːm] 'shabby' See Thai phonology
Toki Pona mani [mani] 'money'
Tsez мец/mec [mɛ̝t͡s] 'tongue'
Turkish benim [be̞nim] 'mine' See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian молоко/moloko [mɔɫɔˈkɔ] 'milk' See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu مکان/makān [məkaːn] 'house' See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Uyghur مەن/men [mæn] 'I'
Uzbek men [men] 'I'
Vietnamese muối [mwojˀ˧˥] 'salt' See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh mam 'mother' See Welsh phonology
West Frisian mar [mar] 'lake' See West Frisian phonology
Yi ꂷ / ma [ma˧] 'bamboo'
Zapotec Tilquiapan man [maŋ] 'animal'

Palatalized

Occurrence of /mʲ/ in several languages.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Bulgarian мя́сто/mjásto [mʲa̟sto] 'place' Contrasts with /m/. See Bulgarian phonology.
Irish mé [mʲeː] 'I' Contrasts with /mˠ/. See Irish phonology.
Kildin Saami ме̄рр/mʹērr [mʲerː] 'sea' Kildin Saami contrasts varieties of bilabial nasals in voicedness, length and palatalization.
Latgalian miļti [mʲilʲtʲi] 'flour' Contrasts with /m/. See Latgalian phonology.
Lithuanian miglà [mʲɪɡˈɫa] 'mist' Contrasts with /m/. See Lithuanian phonology
Marshallese emān [ɛmʲænʲ] 'four' Contrasts with /mˠ/.
Nenets Tundra Nenets мяˮ/ḿaq [mʲɑ] 'tent' Contrasts with /m/.
Forest Nenets
Russian медь/medʹ 'copper' Contrasts with /m/. See Russian phonology.
Veps nem' [nemʲ] 'peninsula' Contrasts with /m/.

Velarized

Occurrence of /mˠ/ in several languages.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Gilbertese mwe [mˠe] 'sleep' Contrasts with /m/ and /mː/.
Irish má [mˠɑː] 'if' Contrasts with /mʲ/. See Irish phonology.
Marshallese m̧winam̧ōn [mˠinʲɑmˠʌnʲ] 'caterpillar' Contrasts with /mʲ/.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Nasal bilabial para niños

  • List of phonetics topics
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