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Voiced bilabial nasal facts for kids

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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 special kind of sound we make with our mouths. It's a consonant sound, and you can find it in almost all spoken languages around the world (about 96% of them!).

You know this sound very well! It's the "m" sound you hear in English words like map or rum.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is a system for writing down sounds, this sound is shown as ⟨m⟩. It helps people who study languages understand exactly how sounds are made. Very few languages, like Wyandot, don't have this sound. Some languages, such as Quileute and Central Rotokas, don't have any nasal sounds at all.

What Makes This Sound Special?

Voiced bilabial nasal
The position of your mouth and tongue when making the 'm' sound.

The "m" sound has a few key features:

  • It's a nasal sound: This means that when you make the sound, air comes out through your nose, not just your mouth. Try holding your nose and saying "m"! It's hard, right?
  • It's bilabial: "Bi" means two, and "labial" means lips. So, this sound is made by pressing your two lips together.
  • It's voiced: This means your vocal cords vibrate when you make the sound. You can feel this if you put your hand on your throat while saying "m".
  • It's a stop: The airflow is completely blocked for a moment before the sound is released.
  • It's central: The air flows out over the center of your tongue.
  • It's pulmonic: The air that makes the sound comes from your lungs. This is how most speech sounds are made.

Different Ways the "M" Sound Can Be Made

Even though the "m" sound is common, it can have slight variations in different languages. Here are a few:

IPA Symbol How it Sounds
m This is the regular "m" sound, like in English.
This is a palatalized "m". It means you make the sound with the middle of your tongue raised towards the roof of your mouth. It sounds a bit like "my" in English.
This is a velarized "m". You make this sound by raising the back of your tongue towards the soft part of the roof of your mouth (the velum).
This is a pharyngealized "m". It's made by tightening the muscles in your throat (pharynx).

Where You Can Hear the "M" Sound

The "m" sound is found in many languages. Here are some examples of words from different languages that use this sound:

The "m" sound (/m/) in different 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'
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
Chinese Cantonese / māau 'cat' See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin / māo See Mandarin phonology
Czech m 'man' See Czech phonology
Dutch mond 'mouth' See Dutch phonology
English him 'him' See English phonology
Filipino manok [maˈnok] 'chicken' See Filipino phonology
French manger 'to eat' See French phonology
German Maus 'mouse' See Standard German phonology
Hawaiian maka [maka] 'eye' See Hawaiian phonology
Hindi धु/madhū [məd̪ʱuː] 'honey' See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian ma 'today' See Hungarian phonology
Italian mamma 'mommy' See Italian phonology
Japanese / mame [mäme̞] 'bean' See Japanese phonology
Korean 마을 / maeul [mɐɯl] 'village' See Korean phonology
Lithuanian mama [ˈmɐmɐ] 'mom'
Malay malam [mäläm] 'night'
Maltese ilma [ilma] 'water'
Norwegian mamma [ˈmɑmːɑ] 'mom' See Norwegian phonology
Persian مادر/mâdar [mɒdær] 'mother' See Persian phonology
Polish masa 'mass' See Polish phonology
Portuguese mato 'bush' See Portuguese phonology
Russian муж/muzh 'husband' This sound is different from the palatalized version in Russian. See Russian phonology
Spanish grumete [ɡɾuˈme̞te̞] 'cabin boy' See Spanish phonology
Swedish mask [mask] 'worm' See Swedish phonology
Thai มม / mommaem [mɔːm.mɛːm] 'shabby' See Thai phonology
Turkish benim [be̞nim] 'mine' See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian молоко/moloko [mɔɫɔˈkɔ] 'milk' See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese muối [mwojˀ˧˥] 'salt' See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh mam 'mother' See Welsh phonology

Palatalized "M" Sounds

Some languages have a "palatalized" version of the "m" sound. This means you make the sound with the middle of your tongue raised towards the hard roof of your mouth.

The palatalized "m" sound (/mʲ/) in different languages.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Bulgarian мя́сто/mjásto [mʲa̟sto] 'place' This is different from the regular "m" sound. See Bulgarian phonology.
Irish [mʲeː] 'I' This is different from the velarized "m" sound. See Irish phonology.
Russian медь/medʹ 'copper' This is different from the regular "m" sound. See Russian phonology.

Velarized "M" Sounds

Other languages use a "velarized" "m" sound. This means you make the sound by raising the back of your tongue towards the soft part of the roof of your mouth (the velum).

The velarized "m" sound (/mˠ/) in different languages.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Irish [mˠɑː] 'if' This is different from the palatalized "m" sound. See Irish phonology.
Marshallese m̧winam̧ōn [mˠinʲɑmˠʌnʲ] 'caterpillar' This is different from the palatalized "m" sound.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Nasal bilabial para niños

  • List of phonetics topics
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