Voiceless bilabial trill
Voiceless bilabial trill | |
---|---|
ʙ̥ | |
Audio sample | |
source · help
| |
Encoding | |
X-SAMPA | B\_0 |
The 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⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol is B\_0
This sound is typologically extremely rare. It occurs in languages such as Pará Arára and Sercquiais.
Only a few languages contrast voiced and voiceless bilabial trills phonemically – e.g. Mangbetu of Congo and Ninde of Vanuatu.
There is also a very rare voiceless alveolar bilabially trilled affricate, [t̪͡ʙ̥] (written ⟨tᵖ̃⟩ in Everett & Kern) reported from Pirahã and from a few words in the Chapacuran languages Wariʼ and Oro Win. 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, Lese has another rare trilled affricate, a labial–velar trilled affricate [k͡pʙ̥], which occurs as an allophone of the voiceless labial–velar plosive [k͡p].
Features
Features of the 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 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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ahamb | [ŋãˈʙ̥̍s] | 'it foams' | Contrasts /ʙ̥, ᵐʙ, ⁿᵈr/. | |
Lese | [uk͡pʙ̥u] | 'head' | Allophone of /k͡p/ | |
Neverver | [naɣaᵐʙ̥] | 'fire, firewood' | ||
Pará Arára | [ʙ̥uta] | 'to throw away' | ||
Ubykh | тваҳəбза/tuaqhəbza | [t͡ʙ̥aχəbza] | 'Ubykh language' | Allophone of /tʷ/. See Ubykh phonology |
Wariʼ | tpotpowe | [t͡ʙ̥ot͡ʙ̥oweʔ] | 'chicken' |