Labiodental consonant

Template:Short description Template:Also Template:IPA notice In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth, such as {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

Labiodental consonants in the IPA

The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

IPA	Description	Example
IPA	Description	Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
main}}	voiceless labiodental nasal	Angami<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	Template:Example needed		main}} before {{#invoke:IPA\|main}}
main}}	voiced labiodental nasal	Kukuya Template:Sfnp (disputed)	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'eyes'
main}}	voiceless labiodental plosive	Greek	σάπφειρος	main}}	'sapphire'
main}}	voiced labiodental plosive	Sika	Template:Example needed
main}}	voiceless labiodental affricate	Tsonga	timpfuvu	main}}	'hippos'
main}}	voiced labiodental affricate	Tsonga	shilebvu	main}}	'chin'
main}}	voiceless labiodental fricative	English	fan	main}}
main}}	voiced labiodental fricative	English	van	main}}
main}}	voiced labiodental approximant	Dutch	wang	main}}	'cheek'
main}}	voiced labiodental flap	Mono	vwa	main}}	'send'
main}}	labiodental ejective affricate	Tsetsaut<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	apfʼo	main}}	'boil'
main}}	labiodental ejective fricative	Yapese<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>	fʼaang	main}}	'type of eel'
main}}	labiodental click release (many different consonants)	Nǁng	ʘoe	main}}	'meat'

In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>John Laver (1994: 323) Principles of Phonetics.</ref>

The IPA chart shades out labiodental lateral consonants.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. In fact, the fricatives {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} often have lateral airflow, but no language makes a distinction for centrality, and the allophony is not noticeable.

The IPA symbol Template:IPAlink was devised for a consonant of Swedish that has various pronunciations, in one dialect a rounded velarized labiodental less ambiguously transcribed as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. The labiodental click is an allophonic variant of the (bi)labial click.

Occurrence

The only common labiodental sounds to occur phonemically are the fricatives and the approximant. The labiodental flap occurs phonemically in over a dozen languages, but it is restricted geographically to central and southeastern Africa.Template:Sfnp With most other manners of articulation, the norm are bilabial consonants (which together with labiodentals, form the class of labial consonants).

{{#invoke:IPA|main}} is quite common, but in nearly all languages in which it occurs, it occurs only as an allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}} before labiodental consonants such as {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. It has been reported to occur phonemically in a dialect of Teke, but similar claims in the past have proven spurious.

The XiNkuna dialect of Tsonga features a pair of affricates as phonemes. In some other languages, such as Xhosa, affricates may occur as allophones of the fricatives. These differ from the German voiceless labiodental affricate Template:Angbr, which commences with a bilabial p. All these affricates are rare sounds.Template:Cn

The stops are not confirmed to exist as separate phonemes in any language. They are sometimes written as ȹ ȸ (qp and db ligatures). They may also be found in children's speech or as speech impediments.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Origins

The frequency of labiodentals (especially f and v) has been argued to be linked to the Agricultural Revolution.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

References

Template:Reflist

Labiodental consonant

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