Bilabial consonant
In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips.
Transcription
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 stop | English | spin | [spɪn] | spin |
|
voiced bilabial stop | 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 | Nias | simbi | [siʙi] | lower jaw |
|
bilabial ejective | Adyghe | пӀэ | [pʼa] | meat |
 ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ʘ̥̃ʰ ʘ̃ˀ |
bilabial click release (many distinct consonants) | Nǁng | ʘoe | [ʘoe] | meat |
Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial stops: [p pʰ ɓ̥ b b̤ ɓ]. Approximately 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tlingit, Chipewyan, Oneida, and Wichita.[1]
The extensions to the IPA also define a bilabial percussive ([ʬ]) for striking the lips together (smacking the lips). 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 no language makes a distinction for centrality so the allophony is not noticeable.
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.
- ^ Heselwood (2013: 121)
General references
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
- McDorman, Richard E. (1999). Labial Instability in Sound Change: Explanations for the Loss of /p/. Chicago: Organizational Knowledge Press. ISBN 0-967-25370-5.
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