2

While answering @Qiangong2's question here: Are Characters customized in different provinces due to dialectal differences? I was looking through the table on 四川方言字.

On the table the following initial keeps showing up:

/dⁿ/

For instance here is one single entry:

𨈓 | nang¹ | dⁿaŋ˥ | 形 | 瘦小、弱小

The entry for this word in《成都话方言词典》is notated as:

𨈓 [Ĩaŋ⁵⁵] 身体瘦小

《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》writes it as:

𨈓 naŋ⁵⁵ 瘦小

I've seen both /n/ and /Ĩ/ as an initial, I have a preference of the two, but I have never come across /dⁿ/. I'm guessing that a simplified writing of /dⁿ/ would be: d‘, but how d‘ sounds anything like /n/ or /Ĩ/ is beyond me.

Ideas?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

It's the IPA diacritic for the nasal release from a stopped consonant:

Quoting right from that Wikipedia page:

That is, the /d/ is released directly into the /n/: [ˈsʌdⁿn̩].

Where [ˈsʌdⁿn̩] is the IPA transcription of the English word "sudden", where the blocked air flow from the articulation of /d/ is released through the nose (you should feel it vibrating in your pharynx).

For those who don't have the font installed, I believe the character in the OP is:

enter image description here

Improve this answer
5
  • /dⁿ/ doesn't seem to be close to n or l though, no?
    – Mou某 ♦
    Aug 19, 2020 at 22:18
  • 1
    @Mo. there are similarities, right? After all /d/, /n/ and /l/ are all dental consonants. And actually to articulate /dⁿ/ from /d/ you (roughly) just have to route the air flow through the nose after releasing the obstruction (tongue, teeth and lips don't move), and to change /dⁿ/ to /n/ you (roughly) don't obstruct the air flow (tongue, teeth and lips again don't move). Kinda close, but your mileage may vary
    – blackgreen
    Aug 19, 2020 at 22:27
  • Less similarities with /l/ (el) as that is a lateral.
    – blackgreen
    Aug 19, 2020 at 22:30
  • Well I believe it is /Ĩ/ with a tilde, sorry I got lazy in my comments there.
    – Mou某 ♦
    Aug 19, 2020 at 22:48
  • @Mo. based on my experience with phonology and linguistics, I think the relation with the laterals (nasalized or not) is less marked. I think of /Ĩ/ (el with tilde) as the phoneme south-westerners use when they speak Mandarin with an accent and replace /l/ with a nasal sound -> e.g. 物流 (logistics) "wu-liu" -> "wu-niu" where the n is actually /Ĩ/. So that one to me is quite unlike /dⁿ/
    – blackgreen
    Aug 20, 2020 at 8:32

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.