Bilabial consonant

Template:Short description Template:IPA notice 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,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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
main}}	voiceless bilabial nasal	Hmong	lang}}	main}}	Hmong
main}}	voiced bilabial nasal	English	man	main}}	man
main}}	voiceless bilabial plosive	English	spin	main}}	spin
main}}	voiced bilabial plosive	English	bed	main}}	bed
main}}	voiceless bilabial affricate	KaingangTemplate:Sfnp	lang}}	main}}	'seed'
main}}	voiced bilabial affricate	ShipiboTemplate:Sfnp	lang}}	main}}	'small intestine'
main}}	voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese	lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	main}}	Mount Fuji
main}}	voiced bilabial fricative	Ewe	lang}}	main}}	Ewe
main}}	bilabial approximant	Spanish	lang}}	main}}	wolf
main}}	voiced bilabial flap	Mono<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'send'
main}}	voiceless bilabial trill	Pará Arára<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>	{{#invoke:IPA|main}}		'to throw away'
main}}	voiced bilabial trill	Nias	lang}}	main}}	lower jaw
main}}	bilabial ejective stop	Adyghe	lang}}	main}}	meat
main}}	bilabial ejective fricative	Yuchi<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	lang}}	main}}	Template:Gloss
main}}	voiceless bilabial implosive	Serer	Template:Example needed
main}}	voiced bilabial implosive	Jamaican Patois	lang}}	main}}	beat
main}}	bilabial clicks (many distinct consonants)	Nǁng	lang}}	main}}	meat

Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial stops: {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.Template:Citation needed

Other varieties

The extensions to the IPA also define a Template:Vanchor (Template:IPAblink) for smacking the lips together. A lip-smack in the non-percussive sense of the lips audibly parting would be {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The IPA chart shades out bilabial lateral consonants, which is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. The fricatives {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 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

Sources

General references

• Template:Citation
• Template:SOWL
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal

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