нь

Etymology

From Middle Mongol ᠢᠨ᠋ᠤ (inu, 3sg-poss) and ᠠᠨ᠋ᠤ (anu, 3pl-poss).

-н (-n) was an oblique suffix originally after a personal pronoun’s stem, while -ь (-ʹ) is the unique suffix for possessive particles. Original determiners were merged into a single particle, so morphemes i and a which denote grammatical numbers, were omitted.

Compare also Buryat -нь (-nʹ), -ынь (-ynʹ), -иинь (-iinʹ) and Kalmyk -нь (-nʹ).

Pronunciation

• (after a vowel) IPA^(key): /n/
• (after a consonant) IPA^(key): /ən/

Particle

нь • (nʹ)

1. Third-person possessive particle
2. Topic marker

   Нохой нь маш номхон байна.

   Noxoj nʹ maš nomxon bajna.

   The dog [in question] is very tame.

3. one (a particular thing or person, qualified with an adjective)
4. (after participles)what (marking a subject clause)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɲ/

Letter

нь • (ny) (lower case, upper case Нь)

1. The nineteenth letter of the Yakut alphabet, called ньэ (nye), and written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ҕ ҕ, Д д, Дь дь, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, Ҥ ҥ, Нь нь, О о, Ө ө, П п, Р р, С с, Һ һ, Т т, У у, Ү ү, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я