[ə]→[n]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Mid central vowel to Alveolar nasal

The shift from the neutral schwa [ə] to the alveolar nasal [n] occurs through the process of syllabic nasal development. As a reduced vowel is increasingly shortened in speech, it can be entirely absorbed by a following nasal consonant, which then becomes the functional nucleus of the syllable.

Phonetic Effects

Syllabic Nasalization, Vowel Absorption, Reduction

Language Examples

Modern English Germanic

button [ən]→[ˈbʌtn̩]— The schwa is lost, and the nasal consonant becomes the syllable nucleus.

and [ənd]→[n̩] (Rock 'n' Roll)

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Nasalization Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction

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