Bilabial nasal - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	m
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	m
Kirshenbaum	m
Sound sample

The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is m, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m. The bilabial nasal occurs in English, and it is the sound represented by "m" in map and bum.

Features of this consonant:

• 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 voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose.
• 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.

In English

English has /m/ and it is denoted by the letter "m". Some dialects of English, including most American English dialects, also have syllabic /m/, as in bottom.

The labiodental nasal is an allophone of /m/. See that article for a description of where the labiodental nasal occurs in English.

In other languages

See also

• List of phonetics topics