The Syllabic N: Bogans Living in the Mountains

In today’s lesson I’m going to introduce you to the Syllabic N with and without nasal release.

Ehh… Lots of linguistic language there, but I promise, it’ll be worth it!

When an unstressed syllable in a word ends with an /n/ sound, it combines with the vowel in that syllable to become the syllabic N with or without nasal release (also known as ‘nasal plosion’).

Nasal release is where the air is being release through the nose instead of through the mouth when making the Syllable N sound. But we’ll cover that later in this lesson.

The IPA symbol for the syllabic N with nasal release is = /ṇ/.

Note: it’s usually not shown in IPA transcriptions of words in dictionaries, but we’ll use it here to assist your learning.

Have a listen to the following words and pay attention to the second syllable that’s unstressed in each word:

• Bogan – /ˈbəʉgən/
• Living – /ˈlɪvən/

Let me repeat those words again, but this time I’ll say each once twice.

The first time, where both syllables of each word are equally stressed, and the second, where the second syllable is unstressed as in normal pronunciation.

• Bogan – /ˈbəʉˈgæn/ -> Bogan – /ˈbəʉgən/
• Living – /ˈlɪˈvɪŋ/ -> Living – /ˈlɪvən/

Did you hear the syllabic N in the second example of each word pair?

The Syllabic N is where the consonant /n/ forms a syllable all of its own, though it’s usually preceded by a quick schwa /ə/ sound.

What do you mean ‘usually’?

Well, that’s just the first type of syllabic N. There’s a second type.

Have a listen to the following two words and see if you hear any schwa /ə/ vowel sound before the Syllabic N this time.

• Mountain – /ˈmæʊnʔṇ/
• Sudden – /ˈsɐ[d]ṇ/

You didn’t hear any schwa /ə/ vowel sound, did you?

That’s because in this case, the syllabic N occurs with nasal release.

Once again that is where air is coming through the nose instead of through the mouth.

Let’s listen again one more time where I’ll repeat what I did above and pronounce each of those words twice.

First, where both syllables of each word are equally stressed, and then second, where the second syllable is unstressed as in normal pronunciation.

• Mountain – /ˈmæʊnˈtæɪn/ -> Mountain – /ˈmæʊnʔṇ/
• Sudden – /ˈsɐˈden/ -> Sudden – /ˈsɐ[d]ṇ/

Did you hear the difference between the two pronunciations?

And did you also notice the lack of the schwa /ə/ vowel sound?

That’s because this second type of syllabic N is with nasal release.

Ehh… getting into linguistic jargon territory again.

For the linguistic nerds: a nasal release is the release of a plosive consonant into a nasal consonant, i.e. /d/ or /t/ -> /n/, where the mouth keeps the tongue in the same /t/ or /d/ position but lowers the soft palate at the back of the throat to allow air to escape through the nose (nasal passage), thus creating a nasally-released plosive consonant. It occurs when a syllabic L comes after a /t/ or /d/ sound.

What are the rules?

As we discussed above, there are 2 types of syllabic N.

Type 1: The Syllabic N with no nasal release

The first type of syllabic N occurs after all consonant sounds except /t/ and /d/ and is followed by a schwa /ə/ vowel sound before the /n/ sound.

For example:

• Bogan – /ˈbəʉgən/
• Living – /ˈlɪvən/
• Smoking – /ˈsməʉkən/
• Open – /ˈəʉpən/

For the linguistic nerds: this /ə/ sound is only made here because the mouth has to change into the /n/ position from whichever consonant position it was in previously, and whilst doing so, a little bit of air escapes the mouth making the schwa /ə/ sound before the Syllabic N.

Type 2: The Syllabic N with nasal release = /ṇ/.

The second type of syllabic N occurs with ‘nasal release’ and happens when the syllabic N comes after the consonant sounds /t/ or /d/.

For example:

• Mountain – /ˈmæʊnʔṇ/
• Floating – /ˈfləʉʔṇ/
• Sweden – /ˈswiːdṇ/
• Fading – /ˈfæɪdṇ/

Note: the /t/ sound has turned into a glottal stop /ʔ/ sound.

For the linguistic nerds: This is where the tongue is already in a /t/ or /d/ position (remember this is the same position as the /n/ position in the mouth) and the vowel sound is just an /n/ sound where air escapes through the nasal passage.

So far, we’ve gone over the Syllabic N with and without nasal release where it appears at the ends of words.

This is the most common place you’ll encounter it, however, there are some other interesting situations where the Syllabic N is used in English.

Let’s go through a few of them.

1. Within words

The Syllabic N with or without nasal release can also occur within words:

For Example:

• Certainly – /ˈsɜːʔṇli/
• Challenging – /ˈʧælənʤɪŋ/

And it can also appear when grammatical inflections added after it.

For example:

• Harden – /ˈhɐː[d]ṇ/ -> Hardens – /ˈhɐː[d]ṇz/
• Open – /ˈəʉpən/ -> Opened – /ˈəʉpənd/
• Bogan – /ˈbəʉgən/ -> Bogans – /ˈbəʉgənz/
• Sweden – /ˈswiː[d]ṇ/ -> Sweden’s – /ˈswiː[d]ṇz/

2. The word ‘and’ = ‘n’

The word ‘and’ can often be shortened to a Syllabic N with nasal release if appearing after a word ending in /t/ or /d/.

And it can be a Syllabic N without nasal release /ən/ if appearing after any other sound in quickly spoken English.

In fact, you’ll often see it on signs or shop names as ‘n’ (Note: this is the only time you’ll see ‘n’, it’s only really used in names or on signs).

Listen closely to the following examples:

• Fish and chips – /fɪʃ ænd ʧɪps/ -> Fish ‘n’ chips- /fɪʃ‿ən ʧɪps/
• Law and order – /loː ænd ˈoːdɐ/ -> Law ‘n’ order – /loː‿ɹ‿ən‿ˈoːɾɐ/
• Black and white – /blæk ænd wæɪt/ -> Black ‘n’ white – /blæk ən wæɪt/
• Good and bad – /gʊd ænd bæd/ -> Good ‘n’ bad – /gʊ[d]‿ṇ bæd/

3. ‘not’ when contracted

You may also see the Syllabic N with or without nasal release used when ‘not’ is contracted to ‘-n’t’ onto the ends of auxiliary verbs.**

For example:

• Would not – /wʊd nɔt/ -> wouldn’t – /ˈwʊ[d]ṇt/
• Could not – /kʊd nɔt/ -> couldn’t – /ˈkʊ[d]ṇt/
• Might not – /mæɪt nɔt/ -> mightn’t – /mæɪnʔṇt/
• Must not – /mɐst nɔt/ -> mustn’t – /ˈmɐs[t](ə)ṇt/

Note: there’s a slight difference between the Syllabic N in ‘wouldn’t’ vs ‘wooden’, but we’ll cover this more in the consonant cluster section.

Note: you won’t hear it in ‘can’t’, ‘don’t, or ‘won’t’ because they’re single syllable words and the N closes a stressed syllable.

How’s the sounds made?

If you need to review the pronunciation of the N /n/ sound, go to it in the consonant pronunciation tutorial section of this course.

1. Type 1 – The Syllabic N without nasal release

The mouth finishes articulating whichever consonant sound is being made, e.g. /g/, /v/, /l/ etc. (except the /h/ sound), and then follows it with a short schwa /ə/ sound before the /n/ sound.

For example:

• Bogan – /ˈbəʉgən/
• Open – /ˈəʉpən/
• Loosen – /ˈlʉːsən/
• Throwing – /ˈθɹəʉən/

2. Type 2 – The Syllabic N with nasal release

As your tongue goes into the /t/ or /d/ position, instead of releasing those consonant sounds, saying the vowel sound and then ending with the /n/ sound, the tongue stays put and the /n/ sound is made as air is released through the nose to represent the syllable. So, no air comes through the mouth. That sudden release of air through the nose is the syllabic N with nasal release.

For example:

• Wooden – /ˈwʊ[d]ṇ/
• Sudden – /ˈsɐ[d]ṇ/
• Written – /ˈrɪʔṇ/
• Satin – /ˈsæʔṇ/

Drilling exercises!

The topics below include drilling exercises for each of the pronunciation points you just learnt.

If you want to “drill down” and practice any or all of these pronunciation points, you can do so with these video exercises in order to solidify your pronunciation of these sounds.

If you can already pronounce these sounds with confidence, skip ahead to the next lesson.

But if you still have a little trouble either remembering the rules or making the sounds themselves, complete these exercises on a regular basis until you’ve nailed the pronunciation.

Tip: shorter and more frequent drilling sessions (e.g. 5 minutes per day) are more effective than longer infrequent sessions (e.g. 1 hour per week).