Labial-velar nasal

The labial-velar nasal stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is IPA|ŋ͡m.

The labial-velar nasal stop is found in West and Central Africa and eastern New Guinea.

Features

Features of the labial-velar nasal stop:

* Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
* Its place of articulation is labial-velar, which means it is articulated with both the lips and with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum). The dorsal closure is made and released slightly before the labial closure, but they overlap for most of their duration.
* Its phonation type 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.
* It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
* The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

ee also

* List of phonetics topics