Voiced bilabial plosive

A voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "b" sound in "obey". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is â¨bâ©.

IPA number102

Entity (decimal)b

Unicode (hex)U+0062

X-SAMPAb

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Voiced bilabial plosive

b

IPA number 102

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Entity (decimal) b

Unicode (hex) U+0062

X-SAMPA b

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Features

Features of a voiced bilabial stop:

Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the medianâlateral dichotomy does not apply.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

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Occurrence of [b] in several languages
Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		Ð±Ð³ÑÑ / bÄ¡Â°	[bÊÊ·É]^â	'nine'
Albanian		bletÃ«	['bletÉ]	'bee'
Arabic	Standard^[1]	Ø¨Ø§Ø¨ / bÄb	[baËb]	'door'	See Arabic phonology
Assyrian		ÜÜÜ baba	[baËba]	'father'
Armenian	Eastern^[2]	Õ¢Õ¡ÖÕ«/bari	[bÉËÉ¾i]^â	'kind'
Basque		bero	[beÉ¾o]	'hot'
Bengali		à¦¬à¦²à§ / balo	[bÉlo]	'say!'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Catalan^[3]		bell	[ËbeÊ]	'beautiful'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		Ð±Ð¾ÑÐ· / borz	[borz]	'wolf'
Czech		bota	[Ëbota]	'boot'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard^[4]^[5]	lÃ¸ber	[ËlÃ¸ËbÉ]	'runner'	Only partially voiced; possible allophone of /b/ in the intervocalic position. More often voiceless [p].^[4]^[5] See Danish phonology
Dutch^[6]		boer	[buËr]	'farmer'	See Dutch phonology
English		aback	[ÉËbÃ¦k]^â	'aback'	See English phonology
Esperanto		batalo	[baËtalo]	'war'	See Esperanto phonology
Filipino		buto	[buto]	'bone'
French^[7]		boue	[bu]	'mud'	See French phonology
Georgian^[8]		áááá¨áá / bavÅ¡vi	[ËbavÊvi]	'child'
German		aber	[ËÃ¤ËbÉ]^â	'but'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		Î¼ÏÏÏÎ± / bÃ³cha	[ËboÌxa]	'reek'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		àª¬àªà«àª°à« / bakri	[bÉkri]	'goat'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		×××ª / bÃ¡yit	[bajit]	'house'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	à¤¬à¤¾à¤² / bÄl	[bÃ¤Ël]	'hair'	Contrasts with aspirated version /bÊ±/. See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hindustani	Urdu	Ø¨Ø§Ù / bÄl	[bÃ¤Ël]	'hair'
Hungarian		baba	[ËbÉbÉ]	'baby'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian^[9]		bile	[Ëbile]	'rage'	See Italian phonology
Japanese^[10]		çª / ban	[baÉ´]	'(one's) turn'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		Ð±Ð³ÑÑÑ/bg"uy	[bÊÊ·É]^â	'nine'
Korean		ì§ë¶ / jibung	[tÍ¡ÉibuÅ]	'roof'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Northern	bav	[bÉËv]	'father'	See Kurdish phonology
	Central	Ø¨Ø§ÙÚ©/bÃ¢wk	[bÉËwk]
	Southern	Ø¨Ø§ÙÚ¯/bÃ¢wig	[bÉËwÉ¨g]
Luxembourgish^[11]		geblosen	[É¡ÌÉËbloËzÉn]	'blown'	More often voiceless [p].^[11] See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		ÑÐ±Ð°Ð²/ubav	[Ëubav]	'beautiful'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		baru	[bÃ¤ru]	'new'
Malayalam		à´¬à´²à´/balam	[bÉlÉm]	'strength'	See Malayalam phonology
Maltese		gÄ§atba	[aËtËba]	'threshold'
Marathi		à¤¬à¤à¤¾à¤à¤¾ / baá¹Äá¹Ä	[bÉËÊaËÊaË]	'potato'	See Marathi phonology
Nepali		à¤¬à¤¾à¤à¥ / bÄá¹o	[bÃ¤Êo]	'path'	See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		bÃ¥l	[ËbÉËl]	'bonfire'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		à¬¬à¬¾à¬°/barÃ´	[bÃ¤rÉ]	'twelve'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Persian		Ø®ÙØ¨/ xub	[xub]	'good'	See Persian phonology
PirahÃ£		pibaÃ³Ã	[ËpÃ¬bÃ Ã³ÃÌ¯]	'parent'
Polish^[12]		bas	[bÃ¤s]^â	'bass'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese^[13]		bato	[Ëbatu]	'I strike'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		à¨¬à¨¿à©±à¨²à©/billÄ«	[bÉªlËi]	'cat'
Romanian^[14]		bou	[bow]	'bull'	See Romanian phonology.
Russian^[15]		ÑÑÐ±Ð° / ryba	[ËrÉ¨bÉ]	'fish'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[16]		Ð±Ð¸ÑÐµ / biÄe	[bÇËtÍ¡ÉÄ]	'being'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		byÅ¥	[biÌc]	'to be'
Slovene		biti	[ËbÃ¬ËtÌªÃ]	'to be'
Southern Min		é© / ban	[ban]	'Fujian province'	Only in colloquial speech.
Spanish^[17]		invertir	[Ä©mbeÌÉ¾ËtÌªiÉ¾]	'to invest'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		bra	[ËbÉ¾ÉË]	'good'	May be an approximant in casual speech. See Swedish phonology
Telugu		à°¬à°¡à°¿	[badi]	'school'	Contrasts with aspirated form. Aspirated form is articulated as breathy consonant.
Thai		à¸à¸³à¸à¸±à¸ / bam-bÃ t	[bam.batÌ]	'therapy'	See Thai phonology
Turkish		bulut	[ËbuÉ«utÌª]	'cloud'	See Turkish phonology
Tyap		bai	[bai]	'to come'
Ukrainian^[18]		Ð±ÑÐ°Ñ / brat	[brÉtÌª]	'brother'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		mab	[mÉËb]	'son'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		bak	[bak]	'tray'
Wu		ç® / bi	[bi]	'skin'
Xiang		æµ® / baw	[bau]	'to float'
Yi		ê§ / bbo	[boË§]	'mountain'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[19]	bald	[bald]	'few'

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Notes

References

Abrahams, Henrik (1949), Ãtudes phonÃ©tiques sur les tendances Ã©volutives des occlusives germaniques, Aarhus University Press
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1â2): 53â56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90â94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Fischer-JÃ¸rgensen, Eli (1952), "Om stemtheds assimilation", in Bach, H.; et al. (eds.), Festskrift til L. L. Hammerich, Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad, pp. 116â129
Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73â76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, JÃ¼rgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67â74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
Goblirsch, Kurt (2018), Gemination, Lenition, and Vowel Lengthening: On the History of Quantity in Germanic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-03450-1
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45â47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID 243772965
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103â107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Landau, Ernestina; LonÄariÄ, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Å kariÄ, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66â69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
MartÃnez-CeldrÃ¡n, Eugenio; FernÃ¡ndez-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-SabatÃ©, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255â259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107â114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117â119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39â87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID 13470826
Puggaard-Rode, Rasmus; Horslund, Camilla SÃ¸balle; JÃ¸rgensen, Henrik (2022), "The rarity of intervocalic voicing of stops in Danish spontaneous speech", Laboratory Phonology, 13 (1), doi:10.16995/labphon.6449, hdl:1887/3304670
Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117â121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255â264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37â41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727

Voiced bilabial plosive

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links

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