Bilabial nasal
m
IPA number	114
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	m
Unicode (hex)	U+006D
X-SAMPA	m
Kirshenbaum	m
Braille
Sound

The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all 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.

It occurs nearly universally, and few languages (e.g. Mohawk) are known to lack this sound.

Features [edit]

Features of the bilabial nasal:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence [edit]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		мажэ	[maːʒa]	'hair brush'
Arabic	Standard[1]	مطابخ	[mɑˈtˤɑːbiχ]	'kitchens'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[2]	մայր	[mɑjɾ] (help·info)	'mother'
Basque		maitatu	[majt̪at̪u]	'to love'
Bulgarian		мъгла	[mɐgla]	'fog'
Catalan[3]		mare	[ˈmaɾə]	'mother'	See Catalan phonology
Cherokee		ᎠᎹ	[ama˦]	'water'
Chinese	Cantonese	晚 maan5	[maːn˩˧]	'night'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	母親 mǔqīn	[mu˨˩ tɕʰin˥]	'mother'	See Mandarin phonology
Czech		muž	[mʊʃ]	'man'	See Czech phonology
Dutch[4]		mond	[mɔnt]	'mouth'	See Dutch phonology
English		him	[hɪm]	'him'	See English phonology
Filipino		manok	[maˈnok]	'rooster'	See Filipino phonology
Finnish		minä	[ˈminæ]	'I'	See Finnish phonology
French[5]		manger	[mɑ̃ʒe]	'to eat'	See French phonology
Georgian[6]		სამი	[ˈsɑmi]	'three'
German		rühmen	[ˈʁyːmən]	'to praise'	See German phonology
Greek[7]		μάζα maza	[ˈmaza]	'clump'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		મોર mōr		'male peacock'	See Gujarati phonology
Hawaiian[8]		maka	[maka]	'eye'	See Hawaiian phonology
Hindi		मकान	[məkaːn]	'house'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hebrew		אמא	[ʔimä]	'mother'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		ma	[mɒ]	'today'	See Hungarian phonology
Indonesian[9]		masuk	[ˈmäsʊʔ]	'enter'
Italian[10]		mamma	[ˈmamma]	'mamma'	See Italian phonology
Japanese[11]		乾杯 kampai	[kampai]	'a toast'	See Japanese phonology
Kagayanen[12]		?	[manaŋ]	'older sister'
Korean		엄마 eomma	[ʌmma]	'mommy'	See Korean phonology
Macedonian		мајка	[ˈmajka]	'mother'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		malam	[mäläm]	'night'
Malayalam[13]		കമ്മി	[kəmmi]	'shortage'
Maltese		ilma	[ilma]	'water'
Marathi		मन	[mən]	'mind'	See Marathi phonology
Norwegian		mamma	[ˈmɑmːɑ]	'mom'	See Norwegian phonology
Persian		مادر	[mɒdær]	'mother'	See Persian phonology
Pirahã		baíxi	[ˈmàí̯ʔì]	'parent'	allophone of /b/
Polish[14]		masa	[ˈmäsä] (help·info)	'mass'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[15]		mato	[ˈmatu]	'bush'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian[16]		муж	[muʂ] (help·info)	'husband'	Contrasts with palatalized version. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		милина / milina[tone?]	[milina][tone?]	'enjoyment'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		muž	[mʊʃ]	'man'
Spanish[17]		grumete	[ɡɾuˈme̞te̞]	'cabin boy'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		miti	[ˈmiti]	'trees'
Swedish		mask	[mask]	'worm'	See Swedish phonology
Tsez		мец	[mɛ̝t͡s]	'language, tongue'
Turkish		benim	[be̞nim]	'mine'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		молоко	[mɔ.lɔ.ˈkɔ]	'milk'	See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu		مکان	[məkaːn]	'house'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Uyghur		men	[mæn]	'I'
Vietnamese[18]		muối	[mwoj˧ˀ˥]	'salt'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		mar	[mar]	'lake'
Yi		ꂷ ma	[ma˧ ]	'bamboo'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[19]	man	[maŋ]	'animal'

See also [edit]

• List of phonetics topics

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618 
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874 
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344 
• Newton, Brian (1972), The generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 8, Cambridge University Press 
• Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J., III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296 
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94–97, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X 
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659 
• Soderberg, Craig D.; Olson, Kenneth S. (2008), "Illustrations of the IPA:Indonesian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (2): 209–213 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266 
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232 

v t e   International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Conlang X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants v t e IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bila­bial Labio-​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post­alveolar Retro​flex Alveolo-​palatal Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̟ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s̪ z̪ s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j̊ j ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̝̊ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ ʎ̟ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ ‼ Implosives ɓ̥ ɓ ɗ̥ ɗ ᶑ ʄ̊ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz t̪s̪ d̪z̪ tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ kx ɡɣ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ ɢʁ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ æ ɐ •aɶ ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view

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