Bilabial flap

Bilabial flap
ⱱ̟
Image
IPA number	184 413
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ⱱ​̟
Unicode (hex)	U+2C71 U+031F

The bilabial flap is an uncommon non-rhotic flap. It is usually, and perhaps always, an allophone of the labiodental flap, though it is the preferred allophone in a minority of languages such as Banda and some of its neighbors.

In the literature it has often been transcribed by a w modified by the extra-short diacritic, ⟨w̆⟩. (Since flaps are similar to brief plosives, it could alternatively be transcribed as ⟨b̆⟩, but this could lead to interference between the diacritic and the ascender of the base character.)

In 2005 the International Phonetic Association adopted the right hook v symbol to represent the labiodental flap. Since then, the received transcription of the bilabial flap involves employing the labiodental flap symbol modified by an advanced diacritic: ⟨ⱱ̟⟩.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Mono		vwa	[ⱱ̟a]	'send'	Contrasts with /v/ and /w/. In free variation with labiodental flap

External links

• Olson and Hajek, 2001. 'The Geographic and Genetic Distribution of the Labial Flap'

Bibliography

• International Phonetic Association (1989), "Report on the 1989 Kiel Convention", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 19: 67–80, doi:10.1017/S0025100300003868 
• International Phonetic Association (2005), "IPA news", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 261–262, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002227 
• Olson, Kenneth (2004), "Mono", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 233–238, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001744 
• Olson, Kenneth S; Hajek, John (1999), "The phonetic status of the labial flap", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 29 (2): 101–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006484 
• Olson, Kenneth S; Hajek, John (2003), "Crosslinguistic insights on the labial flap", Linguistic Typology 7 (2): 157–186, doi:10.1515/lity.2003.014 

Further reading

• Olson, Kenneth; Schrag, Brian (2000), "An overview of Mono phonology", in Wolff, H.E., Proceedings from the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig 1997, Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, pp. 393–409