Voiced bilabial implosive

"Bilabial implosive" redirects here. For the voiceless implosive, see Voiceless bilabial implosive.

The voiced bilabial implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɓ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b_<.

Voiced bilabial implosive
ɓ
IPA number	160
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɓ
Unicode (hex)	U+0253
X-SAMPA	b_<
Braille
Image

Features

Features of the voiced bilabial implosive:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
• Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• The airstream mechanism is implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. Since it is voiced, the glottis is not completely closed, but allows a pulmonic airstream to escape through it.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Akatek		p'eyp'al	[ɓejɓal]	'the walking (thing)'
Balanta-Ganja		ɓaara?	[ɓaːra]?	'heron'	Possible allophone for /b/.[1]
Ega[2]		[ɓá]		'send away'
English	Southern American[3]	body	[ɓʌdi]	'body'	Possible realization of word-initial /b/.[3] See English phonology
Fula[4]		fulɓe 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤩𞤫	[fulɓe]	'Fulbe person' (g.)
Goemai		ḅas	[ɓas]	'to fetch'
Hausa		ɓaɓewa / ݑَݑٜىٰوَا	[ɓaɓɛua]	'quarreling'
Jamaican Patois[5]		beat	[ɓiːt]	'beat'	Allophone of /b/ in the onset of prominent syllables.
Kalabari[6]		ḅá	[ɓá]	'kill'
Khmer		បារាំង/barăng	[ɓaːraŋ]	noun: 'France' adjective: 'French'	See Khmer phonology
Konso[7]		bad	[ɓaɗ]	‘to hide’
Kwaza		bura	[ɓuɾa]	'put [the] hat on!'
Latundê[8]		[ˌɓa:ˈnãn]		'(they) are two'	One of the possible realisations of /p/.[8]
Mayan	Yucatec	balam	[ɓalam]	'jaguar'
Mam		qanbʼax	[qamɓaʂ]	'foot'
Mono[9]		‘balœ	[ɓálə́]	'at'
Punjabi	Dialectal	ਬੱਕਰੀ / بکری	[ˈɓək.krɪ]	'goat'
Paumarí[10]	'bo'da	[ɓoɗa]	'old'
Saraiki[11]		ٻال	[ɓɑː.l]	'child'
Sindhi		ٻر	[ɓaˑrʊ]
Serer[12]		ɓood/ ࢠࣷودْ	[ɓoːd]	'to crawl'	Contrasts /ɓ̥, ɗ̥, ʄ̊, ɓ, ɗ, ʄ/.
Southern Nambikwara[13]		[ɓa̰h]		'ask excuse'	One of the possible realisations of /p/.[13]
Shona		baba	[ɓàːɓá]	'father'
Tera[14]		ɓala	[ɓala]	'to talk'	Contrasts phonemically with palatalized implosive, /ɓʲ/
Tukang Besi		[aɓa]		'previous'
Vietnamese[15]		bạn	[ɓan̪˧ˀ˨ʔ]	'you'	See Vietnamese phonology
Standard Zhuang		lajmbwn	[la̋ːɓɯ̌n]	'world'
Zulu		ubaba	[úˈɓàːɓá]	'my father'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiceless bilabial implosive
• B̤ē