The
velar nasal is a type of
consonantal sound, used in some
spoken languages. It is the sound of
ng in English
sing. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is
N. The IPA symbol is similar to , the symbol for the
retroflex nasal, which has a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem, and to , the symbol for the
palatal nasal, which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem. Both the IPA symbol and the sound are commonly called '
eng' or 'engma'.