Voiceless bilabial implosive

Consonantal sound From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A voiceless bilabial implosive is a rare consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɓ̥⟩ or theoretically ⟨pʼ↓⟩. A dedicated IPA letter, ⟨ƥ⟩, was retired in 1993.

Quick facts ɓ̥, ƥ ...
Voiceless bilabial implosive
ɓ̥
Æ¥
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Features

Features of a voiceless bilabial implosive:

  • 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 voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
  • 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 median–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
  • The airstream mechanism is implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. As it is voiceless, the glottis is completely closed, and there is no pulmonic airstream at all.

Occurrence

A rare and evidently unstable sound, /ɓ̥/ is found in the Serer of Senegal and in the Owere dialect of Igbo in Nigeria. It can also be found in Ngiti in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[1] It is also found in multiple Mayan languages, such as Kaqchikel, Mam, and Akatek.

More information Language, Word ...
LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Akatekkaapʼ[kaːɓ̥]'two'Word-final allophone of /ɓ/.
Ese Ejja ba'i ['ɓ̥aʔi] 'moon' [2]
Kaqchikel[3]b'ojoy[ɓ̥oχoj]'pot'
Mam[2]b'aj[ɓ̥aχ]'finish'In free variation with [ɓ].
Ngiti[4] apbátá [aɓ̥átá] 'to sew' Contrasts /ɓ ᶑ ʄ ɓ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̥/.
Serer[5][example needed]Contrasts /ɓ̥, ɗ̥, ʄ̊, ɓ, ɗ, ʄ/.
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References

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