Hello there! I am relatively new to learning Japanese so this question might be really stupid and I am incredibly sorry about that. I know that is Japanese there are 6 “n” sounds (に, な, の, ぬ, ね & ん) but are they all pronounced differently based on their position within a word?
This confusion stems from the Japanese IPA Pronunciation Key page on Wikipedia ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Japanese)). On the page it goes over a total of 4 different \[n\] sounds (\[n\], \[ɲ\], \[ŋ\] & \[ɴ\]). I know that the voiced palatalized nasal consonant \[ɲ\] is used when the sounds of the “n” row are merged with sounds from the “y” row. However, the voiced velar nasal \[ŋ\], the voiced uvular nasal \[ɴ\] and the voiced alveolar nasal \[n\] consonants seem to be interchangeable between the “n” sounds.
On closer inspection I see that the type of sound varies from positioning within the word which leads me to believe this is a grammar rule. However, I cannot find any information online pertaining to this hypothetical grammar rule. Any help is appreciated greatly!
P.S I put the flair as “Speaking” as it probably fits with that more than Grammar or Discussion
3 comments
If you want a deeper dive into this subject, check out Imabi’s articles on pronounciation. I think the relevant one for your question is [this one](https://www.imabi.net/pronunciationii.htm).
Honestly though, I would not recommend you spend this much time and effort on these kinds of details if you’re just starting out. The differences you mention are relatively minute and sort of come about naturally due to the position of your mouth when you pronounce “n” with specific phonemes.
This only pertains to the moraic nasal ん. The なにぬねの group are always pronounced with an /n/. The moraic nasal ん, on the other hand, *assimilates* to the following consonant. If the following consonant is dental/alveolar, like /t/, /d/, /l/ or /n/, it will also be dental/alveolar /n/. If the following consonant is bilabial, like /p/ or /b/, it will also be bilabial /m/. If the following consonant is velar, like /k/ or /g/, it will also be velar /ŋ/. If the following consonant is /j/ (the “y” sound) or a fricative, it will generally be a nasalized version of the preceding vowel. If the following sound is a vowel, it will be something like [ɰ̃], a nasalized velar approximant. If there is no following sound, it will typically be uvular /ɴ/, though /m/ is a common variation.
The ‘ɴ’ in the table refers to the moraic nasal ん, which mostly just needs to be nasal. When it’s followed by a vowel, or at the end of a sentence, it can be heard sort of like an extra mora of vowel, but nasalised. I’ve never heard it pronounced as uvular, and I’d usually describe the ‘palatalised’ version of the ‘n’ as, well, palatalised rather than truly palatal, but I’m not 100% on that part.