Voiceless bilabial plosive

The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. The voiceless bilabial plosive in English is spelled with 'p', as in pit or speed.

is missing from about 10% of languages that have a . (See for another such gap.) This is an areal feature of the "circum-Saharan zone" (Africa north of the equator, including the Arabian peninsula). It is not known how old this areal feature is, and whether it might be a recent phenomenon due to Arabic as a prestige language (Arabic lost its ^* in prehistoric times), or whether Arabic was itself affected by a more ancient areal pattern. It is found in other areas as well; for example, Proto-Celtic is reconstructed as having but no .

Nonetheless, the sound is very common cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [p" target="_blank" >^*.

Features

Features of the voiceless bilabial plosive:

Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Its place of articulation is bilabial which means it is articulated with both lips.
Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Varieties of the voiceless bilabial plosive

IPA	Description
	plain p
	aspirated p
	palatalized p
	labialized p
	unreleased p
	voiced p
	ejective p

In Arabic

Arabic has no original Semitic ^*" target="_blank" >in prehistoric times. Native speakers of Arabic usually render foreign ^* in both speech and writing, so that the Greek name Paulus becomes Arabic Bulus, for example.

In English

English has both aspirated and plain ^*, but they are allophones.

When occurs at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable, like in print, support, or potato, then it is always aspirated. When it occurs at the beginning of an unstressed syllable that isn't at the beginning of a word, like in occupant, vapid, or keeper, then it is always unaspirated. When consonant cluster following ^*," target="_blank" >like in spin, sprain, or suspend, then it is always unaspirated. When it occurs at the end of a word, like in tip, wasp, or telescope, then it is usually unaspirated, and if the word is at the end of an utterance, then the [p is often unreleased.

In Georgian

Georgian has aspirated and ejective ^*. They are distinct phonemes, not allophones. Aspirated p is spelled with ფ. Ejective p is spelled with პ .

In German

In German, plain is an allophone of voiced ^*." target="_blank" >This is not the case in all German dialects, however, and nor [pʰ does not exist in Austro-Bavarian.

In Greek

Ancient Greek had plain and aspirated phonemes, written pi (π) and phi (φ) respectively. The aspirated form developed into ^*.

In standard Modern Greek, there is only (π); φ is pronounced [f.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Voiceless bilabial plosive