[n]→[ɳ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Alveolar nasal to Voiced retroflex nasal

Retroflexion of the dental nasal [n] to the retroflex nasal [ɳ], a process known as 'Nati' in Sanskrit grammar. This typically occurs when a dental nasal is preceded by a retroflex consonant (like [ʂ], [r], or [ɽ]) within the same word, even across other vowels or consonants (except dental/palatal ones).

Phonetic Effects

Nati, Retroflexion

Language Examples

Sanskrit Indo-Aryan

brahman→brahmaṇā— Nominative vs Instrumental case; [n] becomes [ɳ] due to preceding [r] in the root.

Prakrit Indo-Aryan

n→ɳ— General retroflexion of dental nasals in various Middle Indo-Aryan dialects.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Indo-Aryan Shifts

[ai] → [e] — Monophthongization [kʰ] → [tʃ] — Palatalization [ʒ] → [ʈʂʰ] — Devoicing [ai] → [ɛ] — Monophthongization [bʱ] → [b] — Deaspiration

Sources & References

Spotted a mistake or have a better example?

EchoDrift is community-driven. You can suggest a change directly through GitHub.

Propose an Edit on GitHub