Voiceless bilabial trill
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʙ̥⟩ in IPA
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A voiceless bilabial trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʙ̥⟩. Some sources use a para-IPA symbol ⟨ᴘ⟩ to transcribe this sound.[1][2]
This sound is typologically extremely rare. It occurs in languages such as Pará Arára.[3] Only a few languages contrast voiced and voiceless bilabial trills phonemically – e.g. Mangbetu and Dongo of DR Congo and Ninde of Vanuatu.[4][5][6]
Features
Features of a bilabial trill:
- Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by directing air over an articulator so that it vibrates.
- 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. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
- 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.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most speech sounds.
Occurrence
Plain
Prestopped trills and stops with trill release
There is also a very rare voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental or alveolar stop, [t̪͡ʙ̥] (written ⟨tᵖ̃⟩ in Everett & Kern) reported from a few words in the Chapacuran languages Wariʼ, Itene (More),[11] and Oro Win, as well as Sangtam, a Naga language. The sound also appears as an allophone of the labialized voiceless alveolar stop /tʷ/ of Abkhaz and Ubykh, but in those languages it is more often realised by a doubly articulated stop [t͡p]. In the Chapacuran languages, [tʙ̥] is reported almost exclusively before rounded vowels such as [o] and [y].
Additionally, the Efe dialect of Lese has a doubly articulated labial–velar with trilled release [k͡ʙ̥], which occurs as an allophone of the voiceless labial–velar plosive /k͡p/.[12]
In some languages, the trill may be voiced, particularly when syllabic; see Voiced bilabial trill § Prestopped trills and stops with trill release.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Itene[11] | [ˈt𐞄̥u] | 'toad' | Phonemic | ||
| Lese | Efe[12] | [uk͡ʙ̥u] | 'head' | Allophone of /k͡p/. | |
| Oro Win[13] | [t̪͡ʙ̥um] | 'small boy' | Phonemic. Noted as 'a bilabial trill, preceded by a dental stop, forming a single uni[t]'[14] | ||
| Sangtam[15] | [t̪͡ʙ̥ʰʌ] | 'plate' | Contrasts aspirated /t̪͡ʙ̥ʰ/ and unaspirated /t̪͡ʙ̥/, noted as 'prestopped trills'. The trill in the unaspirated consonant is typically voiced as [t̪͡ʙ] when word-medial.[16] | ||
| Ubykh[17][full citation needed] | [t͡ʙ̥aχəbza] | 'Ubykh language' | Allophone of /tʷ/. See Ubykh phonology | ||
| Wariʼ[18] | totowe' | [t̪͡ʙ̥ot̪͡ʙ̥oˈweʔ] | 'chicken' | Occurs only before /o/ and /y/, appearing almost exclusively in older speakers; allophonic with [t] in some dialects | |