Bilabial approximant

The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨β⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ⟨B⟩. The symbol ⟨β⟩ is the Greek letter beta. This symbol is also sometimes used to represent the bilabial approximant, though that is more clearly written with the lowering diacritic, ⟨β̞⟩. The bilabial fricative is diachronically unstable and is likely to shift to [v].^[1] In the English language, this sound is not used, but can be made by approximating the normal "v" sound between the two lips.

1 Features
2 Occurrence
3 See also
4 References
5 Bibliography

Features

Features of the voiced bilabial fricative:

Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the undertack diacritic may be used to indicate an approximant [β̞].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Akei		[βati]		'four'
Alekano		hanuva	[hɑnɯβɑ]	'nothing'
Amharic		አበባ	[aβəβa]	'flower'
Angor		fufung	[ɸuβuŋ]	'horn'
Basque^[2]		alaba	[alaβ̞a]	'daughter'	Allophone of /b/
Berta		[βɑ̀lɑ̀ːziʔ]		'no'
Catalan^[3]		rebost	[rəˈβ̞ɔst]	'larder'	Allophone of /b/. See Catalan phonology
Dutch	Belgian^[4]	wang	[β̞ɑŋ]	'cheek'	Some dialects.^[4] Corresponds to [w] in standard Belgian Dutch. See Dutch phonology
Dutch	Maastrichtian^[5]	wang	[β̞ɑŋ]	'cheek'	Corresponds to [ʋ] in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
Dahalo		[koːβo]		'to want'
Ewe^[6]		Eʋe	[ɛβɛ]	'Ewe language'	Contrasts with both [v] and [w]
German	Austrian^[7]	aber	[ˈɑːβa]	'but'	Intervocallic allophone of /b/ in casual speech. See German phonology
Japanese^[8]		神戸市 kōbe-shi	[koːβe ɕi]	'Kobe'	Allophone of /b/. Only in fast speech between vowels. See Japanese phonology
Kabyle		bri	[βri]	'to cut'
Occitan	Gascon	la-vetz	[laβ̞ets]	'then'	Allophone of /b/
Portuguese^[9]	Some dialects	uma bala	[ˈumɐ ˈβaɫɐ]	'a bullet', 'a candy'	Allophone of /b/, and phantom /v/, most common in European Portuguese.^[10] In Brazil, [β] can also occur in some particular contexts. See Portuguese phonology
	Many dialects	sábado	[ˈsaβɐðu]	'Saturday'
	Most dialects^[11]	abra	[ˈaβɾɐ]	'open it'
Spanish^[12]		lava	[ˈläβ̞ä]	'lava'	Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology
Turkmen		watan	[βatan]	'country'
Uruguayan Portuñol		brabo	[ˈbɾaβ̞o]	'angry'	Allophone of /b/
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[13]	^{[example needed]}			Allophone of /b/

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions

Phonetics	Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation

Special topics	Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects

Encodings	SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille

Consonants


audio
Place →	Labial		Coronal						Dorsal				Radical			Glottal
↓ Manner	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex		Alveolo-palatal		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal
Stop
Sibilant fricative
Non-sibilant fricative
Approximant
Flap or tap
Trill															*
Lateral fricative						*
Lateral approximant
Lateral flap							*

Non-pulmonic consonants
Clicks	ʘ	ǀ		ǃ	ǂ	ǁ
Clicks	ʘ̃	ʘ̃ˀ		ʘ͡q	ʘ͡qʼ	‼
Implosives	ɓ̥		ɗ̥		ʄ̊
Ejectives

Affricates

Co-articulated consonants
Continuants
Occlusives

— These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]

— Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants.

— Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible.

— Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA.

Chart image

Pulmonics
Non-pulmonics
Affricates
Co-articulated

Vowels

This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.

Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.

Bilabial approximant