Bilabial consonant
In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:
| IPA | Description | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
|
bilabial nasal | English | man | [mæn] | man |
|
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 |
|
bilabial trill | ||||
|
bilabial click | Nǀu | ʘoe | [ʘoe] | meat |
Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial plosives: [p pʰ ɓ̥ b b̤ ɓ]. Approximately 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether; these include Tlingit, Chipewyan, Oneida, and Wichita [1].
See also
References
Notes
- ^ 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, chapter 18. Available online at http://wals.info/feature/18. Accessed on 2008-09-15.
General references
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
