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

The 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
p͡ɸ	voiceless bilabial affricate	Kaingang[2]	fy	[ˈp͡ɸɤ]	'seed'
b͡β	voiced bilabial affricate	Shipibo[3]	boko	[ˈb͡βo̽ko̽]	'small intestine'
ɸ	voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese	富士山 (fujisan)	[ɸuʑisaɴ]	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	Serer	[example needed]
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].^{[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 audibly parting would be [ʬ↓].^[7]

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

• Place of articulation
• Index of phonetics articles

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

• Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009), "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble", Anais do SETA, 3, Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP: 675–685
• 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 0-9672537-0-5.
• Olson, Kenneth S. (2004). "Mono" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (2): 233–238. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001744.
• Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001). "Shipibo". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 31 (2): 281–285. doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109.