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]
Varieties
The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:
| IPA | Description | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
| voiced bilabial nasal | English | man | [mæn] | man | |
| m̥ | voiceless bilabial nasal | Hmong | Hmoob | [m̥ɔ̃́] | Hmong |
| voiceless bilabial plosive | English | spin | [spɪn] | spin | |
| voiced bilabial plosive | English | bed | [bɛd] | bed | |
| voiceless bilabial fricative | Japanese | 富士山 (fujisan) | [ɸuʑisaɴ] | Mount Fuji | |
| voiced bilabial fricative | Ewe | ɛʋɛ | [ɛ̀βɛ̀] | Ewe | |
| bilabial approximant | Spanish | lobo | [loβ̞o] | wolf | |
| voiced bilabial trill | Nias | simbi | [siʙi] | lower jaw | |
| ʙ̥ | voiceless bilabial trill | Sercquiais | fritt | [ʙ̥rɪt] | crop |
| bilabial ejective | Adyghe | пӀэ | [pʼa] | meat | |
| ɓ | voiced bilabial implosive | Jamaican Patois | beat | [ɓiːt] | beat |
| ɓ̥ | voiceless bilabial implosive | Serer | |||
| k͡ʘ ɡ͡ʘ ŋ͡ʘ | bilabial click release (many distinct consonants) | Nǁng | ʘoe | [k͡ʘoe] | meat |
Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial stops: [p pʰ ɓ̥ b b̤ ɓ].[citation needed]
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 noisily parting would be [ʬ↓].[2]
The IPA chart shades out bilabial lateral consonants, which is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. The fricatives [ɸ] and [β] are often lateral, but since no language makes a distinction for centrality, the allophony is not noticeable.
See also
References
Citations
- ^ "WALS Online - Chapter Absence of Common Consonants". wals.info. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
- ^ Heselwood (2013: 121)[citation not found]
Sources
- General references
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
- McDorman, Richard E. (1999). Labial Instability in Sound Change: Explanations for the Loss of /p/'l. H'. Chicago: Organizational Knowledge Press. ISBN 0-9672537-0-5.