Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (
bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (
labiodental articulation). English is a bilabial
nasal sonorant, and are bilabial
stops (plosives), and are labiodental
fricatives.
Bilabial fricatives and the
bilabial approximant do not exist in standard English, but do occur in many languages. For example, the Spanish consonant spelt
b or
v is pronounced as a voiced
bilabial approximant between vowels.
Lip rounding, or
labialisation can also accompany other articulations. English is a
labialised velar approximant.
Labial consonants are divided into two subplaces of articulation:
Very few languages, however, make a distinction on purely this basis. (One example is
Ewe, with both kinds of fricatives.) For by far the most languages in the world,
labial by itself is a sufficient
phonemic specification. Whether the sounds will actually be bilabial or labiodental depends on the language, but the most common pattern is that exhibited in English: bilabial stops and nasals, labiodental fricatives. Neither purely labial approximant is as common as the
labial-velar approximant .
See also
