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True nasal fricatives, formerly known as nareal fricatives, are fricatives whose airflow is only through the nasal cavity. In extIPA, they are notated by [ ͋], e.g. [m͋].

That would mean the mouth is closed, making a nasal stop. If both voicing and strong airflow are present, that means the phonation is breathy. Does this mean [m͋]≡[m̤]?

I'm curious about this because, my native language is Korean, and I tend to mash [ㅁㅎ] ([m.ɦ]) together to one consonant. I would describe this consonant as above, but I'm unsure how this should be transcribed to (ext)IPA. This also happens to [ㄴㅎ] and [ㅇㅎ]. Examples include 엄호, 난해, 몽환.

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  • “If both voicing and airflow are present, that means the phonation is breathy” — No. Voicing cannot be present if there is no airflow; an airflow is required to make the vocal cords vibrate and create voicing. Breathy voice is created by reduced tension in the vocal cords or increased distance between the arytenoid cartilages (depending on whom you ask), which can be done regardless of whether you have an oral closure or nasal friction. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 17 '20 at 23:43
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Err... I meant airflow as in voiceless fricative. What's the term? – Dannyu NDos Nov 18 '20 at 0:46
  • ‘Frication’ (airflow passing through a part of the vocal tract which is narrowed enough that the turbulence of the airflow causes audible noise) is the term for the specific type of airflow that causes fricatives. But it still doesn’t work. Breathy voice does not have to do with the force of the airflow or with the constriction in the vocal tract – it’s caused entirely by differences in the larynx. The phonation will be breathy if the laryngeal position (of the vocal cords/arytenoid cartilages) are positioned correctly, irrespective of airflow force and vocal tract constrictions. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 18 '20 at 8:28
  • If you can locate a speech file with a nasal fricative, that would facilitate an answer, but I suspect there are none because of privacy laws. It is extremely unlikely that the two are identical, since the device for transcribing nasal fricatives would not have been introduced given the existence of [m̤]. – user6726 Nov 18 '20 at 16:07

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