Labiodental nasal

The labiodental nasal is a type of consonantal sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is $⟨⟩$. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter m with a leftward hook protruding from the lower right of the letter. Occasionally it is instead transcribed as an em with a dental diacritic: $⟨⟩$.

It is pronounced very similarly to the bilabial nasal, except instead of the lips touching each other, the lower lip touches the upper teeth. The position of the lips and teeth is generally the same as for the production of the other labiodental consonants, like and, though closure is obviously incomplete for the fricatives.

Although commonly appearing in languages, it is overwhelmingly present non-phonemically, largely restricted to appear before labiodental consonants like and. A phonemic has been reported for the Kukuya (Kukwa) dialect of Teke, where it contrasts with  and is "accompanied by strong protrusion of both lips". It is before  and  before  and, perhaps because labialization is constrained by the spread front vowels; it does not occur before back (rounded) vowels. However, there is some doubt that a true stop can be made by this gesture due to gaps between the incisors, which for many speakers would allow air to flow during the occlusion; this is particularly pertinent considering that one of the words with this consonant,, means a 'gap between filed incisors,' a practice of the Teke people. That is, Teke might be better characterized as a labiodental nasal approximant than as a nasal occlusive.

Nonetheless, it is common phonetically, as it is a typical allophone of and  before the labiodental fricatives  and, as in English comfort, circumvent, infinitive, or invent. In Angami, it occurs as an allophone of before.