The voiced bilabial nasal is a type of

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

al sound used in almost all spoken

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

s. The symbol in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...

that represents this sound is , and the equivalent

X-SAMPA The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, a ...

symbol is m. The bilabial nasal occurs in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and it is the sound represented by "m" in ''map'' and ''rum''. Only very few languages (e.g.

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wya ...

) are known to lack this sound.

Features

Features of the voiced bilabial nasal:

Varieties

Occurrence

, , 'I' , , , - , colspan="2" ,

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

, , , , , , 'salt', , See

Vietnamese phonology The phonology of Vietnamese features 19 consonant phonemes, with 5 additional consonant phonemes used in Vietnamese's Southern dialect, and 4 exclusive to the Northern dialect. Vietnamese also has 14 vowel nuclei, and 6 tones that are integral t ...

, - , colspan="2" ,

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

, , , , , , 'mother', , See

Welsh phonology The phonology of Welsh language, Welsh is characterised by a number of sounds that do not occur in English language, English and are rare in Languages of Europe, European languages, such as the Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives, vo ...

, - , colspan="2" , West Frisian, , , , , , 'lake', , See

West Frisian phonology This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the West Frisian language. Consonants * are bilabial, and are labiodental. ** is often included with the diphthongs, rather than the consonants, as it occurs only in rising diphthongs and ...

, - , colspan="2" , Yi , , / , , , , 'bamboo', , , - , Zapotec, , Tilquiapan, , , , , , 'animal' , ,

Palatalized

Velarized

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* * * {{IPA navigation Bilabial consonants Pulmonic consonants Nasal consonants Labial–coronal consonants Voiced consonants