Arsthbt

Some IPA symbols such as ɲ lack any name, and when I tried searching for the symbol online, the pages I got only showed palatal nasal.

But I wonder how I should call it when I talk with others. Is there any standard convention to call it? Or how do linguists call it, such as in an international conference?

Good question! IPA symbols generally fall into one of three categories, in common use:

• Some symbols have a conventional name: æ is "ash", θ is "theta", ŋ is "engma". Standard Latin letters would also fall into this group, like v being "vee".


• Some symbols are named based on their shape: ɤ is "rams-horns", ɔ is "open o", ħ is "h-bar". These are the names that are most often used in Unicode.


• Some symbols are just named after their IPA usage: ɲ is "palatal nasal", ɖ is "voiced retroflex stop", ʍ is "voiceless labiovelar approximant". These names are also sometimes used in Unicode, usually for more recent additions.

In this particular case, I've never heard anyone call ɲ anything other than "palatal nasal". That's the name I'd expect to hear in a conference.

Almost every character that can be input and shown on modern computers is defined in Unicode and has a code point, so of course each IPA symbol has a name. <ɲ> is defined as "LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH LEFT HOOK" in the Unicode code chart. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (1999: 166–184) also has a list of symbols with descriptions, which calls <ɲ> "Left-tail N". Both these descriptions are based in part on the naming conventions set out in Pullum & Ladusaw's Phonetic Symbol Guide (1986/1996), which calls <ɲ> "Left-Hook N". SIL International's ScriptSource and Wikipedia also have summaries of the IPA symbols and what to call them.

But AFAIK only a few nicknames like "eng" and "ezh" carry even a modest amount of currency in daily parlance among linguists. In a setting like a conference, simply "the symbol for the palatal nasal" etc. may be the way that is understood by the broadest possible audience.