Bilabial Consonant

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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, 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
IPA	Description	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	fy	[ˈp͡ɸɤ]	'seed'
b͡β	voiced bilabial affricate	Shipibo	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	vwa	[ⱱ̟a]	'send'
ʙ̥	voiceless bilabial trill	Pará Arára	[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	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 noisily parting would be [ʬ↓].

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.

References

Citations

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.