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In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
Xsampa-m.png bilabial nasal English man [mæn] man
Xsampa-p.png voiceless bilabial plosive English spin [spɪn] spin
Xsampa-b.png voiced bilabial plosive English bed [bɛd] bed
Xsampa-pslash.png voiceless bilabial fricative Japanese 富士山 (fujisan) [ɸuʑisaɴ] Mount Fuji
Xsampa-B2.png voiced bilabial fricative Ewe ɛʋɛ [ɛ̀βɛ̀] Ewe
IPA-voiced bilabial approximant.png bilabial approximant Spanish lobo [loβ̞o] wolf
Xsampa-Bslash.png bilabial trill
Xsampa-Oslash.png bilabial click Nǀu ʘoe [ʘoe] meat

Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial plosives: [p pʰ ɓ̥ b b̤ ɓ]. Approximately 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants at all; these include Tlingit, Chipewyan, Oneida, and Wichita [1].

See also

Consonants
List · Table
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​d. Den​tal Alv. Post. Retro​fl. Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn. Epi​glot​t. Glot​tal
Nasals m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ
Plosives p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ
Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ
Approxim. ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ
Trills ʙ r ʀ
Flaps / taps ⱱ̟ ɾ ɽ
Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ
Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ
Non-pulmonics and other symbols [edit • talk]
 Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ
 Impl.  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
 Eject. 
 Affr.  p̪͡f  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ
Other laterals  ɺ ɫ
Co-art. fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ
Co-art. approxim.  ʍ w ɥ
Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This table contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible.

See also IPA · Vowels

References

  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, chapter 18. Available online at http://wals.info/feature/18. Accessed on 2008-09-15.