Bilabial consonant

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips.

Frequency

Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tlingit, Chipewyan, Oneida, and Wichita,[1] though all of these have a labial–velar approximant /w/.

Varieties

Some bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
m̥ voiceless bilabial nasal Hmong Hmoob [m̥ɔ̃́] Hmong
m voiced bilabial nasal English man [mæn] man
p voiceless bilabial plosive English spin [spɪn] spin
b voiced bilabial plosive English bed [bɛd] bed
p͜ɸ voiceless bilabial affricate Kaingang[2] fy [ˈp͜ɸɤ] 'seed'
b͜β voiced bilabial affricate Shipibo[3] boko [ˈb͜βo̽ko̽] 'small intestine'
ɸ voiceless bilabial fricative Japanese 富士山 (fujisan) [ɸɯʑisaɴ] Mount Fuji
β voiced bilabial fricative Ewe ɛʋɛ [ɛ̀βɛ̀] Ewe
β̞ bilabial approximant Spanish lobo [loβ̞o] wolf
ⱱ̟ voiced bilabial flap Mono[4] vwa [ⱱ̟a] 'send'
ʙ̥ voiceless bilabial trill Pará Arára[5] [ʙ̥uta] 'to throw away'
ʙ voiced bilabial trill Nias simbi [siʙi] lower jaw
pʼ bilabial ejective stop Adyghe пӀэ [pʼa] meat
ɸʼ bilabial ejective fricative Yuchi[6] ḟasę [ɸ’asẽ] 'good evening!'
ɓ̥ voiceless bilabial implosive Kaqchikel b'ojoy [ɓ̥oχoj] 'pot'
ɓ voiced bilabial implosive Jamaican Patois beat [ɓiːt] beat
k͡ʘ q͡ʘ
ɡ͡ʘ ɢ͡ʘ
ŋ͡ʘ ɴ͡ʘ 		bilabial clicks (many distinct consonants) Nǁng ʘoe [k͡ʘoe] meat

Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial stops: [p pʰ ɓ̥ b b̤ ɓ].

The IPA chart shades out bilabial lateral consonants. This is because lateral consonants are defined as ones in which the airflow passes over the side of the tongue; the category therefore does not apply to labial consonants. (See also labiodental consonant, which very commonly have airflow at the side of the mouth.)

Other varieties

The extensions to the IPA also define a bilabial percussive ([ʬ] ⓘ) for smacking the lips together. A lip-smack in the non-percussive sense of the lips audibly parting would be an ingressive [ʬ↓].[7]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Maddieson, Ian (2008), "Absence of Common Consonants", in Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S.; Gil, David; Comrie, Bernard (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Munich: Max Planck Digital Library
  2. ^ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 680–681.
  3. ^ Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001).
  4. ^ Olson (2004:233)
  5. ^ de Souza, Isaac Costa (2010). "3" (PDF). A Phonological Description of "Pet Talk" in Arara (MA). SIL Brazil. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  6. ^ Crawford, James M. (1973). "Yuchi Phonology". International Journal of American Linguistics. 39 (3): 173–179. doi:10.1086/465261. S2CID 224808560.
  7. ^ Heselwood, Barry (2013). Phonetic Transcription in Theory and Practice. Edinburgh University Press. p. 121. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640737.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-7486-4073-7. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt9qdrqz. S2CID 60269763.

Sources

General references

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