At
the phonetic level, there are four nasals in Kashmiri: m, n,
n',
and  .
In the phonological descriptions of the language, these have been reduced
to only two, /m/ and /n/. The
occurs only before homorganic stops in medial and final positions, e.g., 
'thigh' and 
'clove'. In phonological descriptions, the
is treated as an allophone of the /n/ which occurs before velar stops.
The palatal nasal is treated as a combination of n + palatalization.
This seems desirable since almost all consonants have a palatalized counterpart.
We shall, however, discuss m, n, and
below.
The m is a bilabial
nasal, produced as the m is in the English man or in the
Hindi-Urdu ma:ma: 'mother's brother'. The n is an alveolar
nasal. It is produced as the English n is in now; in the
Kashmiri n, however, the tongue is pressed against the upper teeth.
It is also similar to the Hindi-Urdu n, as in 
'short-sized'. The velar
is produced by the back of the tongue touching the soft palate. It is similar
to the English ng in sing or ring, or the Hindi-Urdu 
'color' or 
'in company with'.
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Introduction
