View source for Labial consonant

{{short description|Consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulators}}
{{no footnotes|date=July 2012}}
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'''Labial consonants''' are consonants in which one or both [[lip]]s are the [[active articulator]]. The two common labial articulations are [[bilabial consonant|bilabials]], articulated using both lips, and [[labiodental consonant|labiodentals]], articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, both of which are present in [[English phonology|English]]. A third labial articulation is [[dentolabial consonant|dentolabials]], articulated with the upper lip against the lower teeth (the reverse of labiodental), normally only found in pathological speech. Generally precluded are [[linguolabial consonant|linguolabials]], in which the tip of the [[tongue]] contacts the posterior side of the upper lip, making them [[coronal consonant|coronals]], though sometimes, they behave as labial consonants.{{clarify|date=January 2017}}

The most common distribution between bilabials and labiodentals is the [[English language|English]] one, in which the [[nasal consonant|nasal]] and the [[stop consonant|stops]], {{IPA|[m]}}, {{IPA|[p]}}, and {{IPA|[b]}}, are bilabial and the [[fricative consonant|fricatives]], {{IPA|[f]}}, and {{IPA|[v]}}, are labiodental. The [[voiceless bilabial fricative]], [[voiced bilabial fricative]], and the [[bilabial approximant]] do not exist as the primary realizations of any sounds in [[English language|English]], but they occur in many languages. For example, the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] consonant written ''b'' or ''v'' is pronounced, between vowels, as a [[voiced bilabial approximant]].

Lip rounding, or [[labialisation|labialization]], is a common [[approximant consonant|approximant]]-like [[Secondary articulation|co-articulatory]] feature. English {{IPA|/w/}} is a [[Voiced labio-velar approximant|voiced labialized velar approximant]], which is far more common than the purely [[Bilabial approximant|labial approximant]] [β̞]. In the [[languages of the Caucasus]], labialized [[dorsal consonant|dorsals]] like /kʷ/ and /qʷ/ are very common.

Very few languages, however, make a distinction purely between [[bilabial consonant|bilabials]] and [[labiodental consonant|labiodentals]], making "labial" usually a sufficient specification of a language's [[phoneme]]s. One exception is [[Ewe language|Ewe]], which has both kinds of fricatives, but the labiodentals are produced with greater articulatory force.

==Lack of labials==
While most languages make use of purely labial phonemes, a few generally lack them. Examples are [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]], [[Eyak language|Eyak]] (both [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dené]]), [[Wichita language|Wichita]] ([[Caddoan languages|Caddoan]]), and the [[Iroquoian languages]] except [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

Many of these languages are transcribed with {{IPA|/w/}} and with [[labialized consonant]]s. However, it is not always clear to what extent the lips are involved in such sounds. In the Iroquoian languages, for example, {{IPA|/w/}} involved little apparent rounding of the lips. See the [[Tillamook language]] for an example of a language with "rounded" consonants and vowels that do not have any actual labialization. All of these languages have seen labials introduced under the influence of English.

==See also==
*[[Labialization]]
*[[Index of phonetics articles]]

==References==
*{{SOWL}}
* McDorman, Richard E. (1999). ''Labial Instability in Sound Change: Explanations for the Loss of /p/''. Chicago: Organizational Knowledge Press. {{ISBN|0-9672537-0-5}}.

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[[Category:Place of articulation]]
[[Category:Labial consonants|*]]