Bilabial consonant

Places of articulation
Labial     Bilabial         Labial–velar         Labial–coronal     Labiodental Bidental Coronal     Linguolabial     Interdental     Dental     Denti-alveolar     Alveolar     Coronal–velar     Postalveolar         Palato-alveolar         Retroflex Dorsal     Postalveolar         Alveolo-palatal     Palatal         Labial–palatal     Velar     Uvular         Uvular–epiglottal Laryngeal (Guttural)     Pharyngeal/Epiglottal     Glottal Peripheral
Tongue shape
Apical Subapical Laminal Sulcal Domed
Secondary articulation
Labialization (Rounding) Palatalization     Labio-palatalization Velarization Uvularization Pharyngealization
See also
Articulatory phonetics Coarticulation Double articulation Glottalization Manner of articulation

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial 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]
	voiceless bilabial stop	English	spin	[spɪn]
	voiced bilabial stop	English	bed	[bɛd]
	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.

The extensions to the IPA also define a bilabial percussive ([ʬ]) for striking the lips together (smacking the lips – see percussive consonant). 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 no language makes a distinction for centrality so the allophony is not noticeable.

See also

• Place of articulation
• Index of phonetics articles

References

General references

• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
• McDorman, Richard E. (1999). Labial Instability in Sound Change: Explanations for the Loss of /p/'l. H'. Chicago: Organizational Knowledge Press. ISBN 0-9672537-0-5.