Bilabial trill - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	ʙ
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	B\
Kirshenbaum	b<trl>
Sound sample

The 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 ʙ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B\.

Features of this consonant:

• Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by vibrations of the articulators.
• 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 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.

In English language

English does not have the bilabial trill as a phoneme.

In other languages

The bilabial trill exists as a phoneme in a few languages. In most, if not all, of the languages where it occurs, it should probably more exactly be analysed as a prenasalised stop with trilled release.

Some languages, such as Mangbetu (spoken in North-Eastern Zaire) and Mewun (spoken in Vanuatu), may have both voiced and voiceless bilabial trill.

Abkhaz

In Abkhaz, the "affricate" [tʙ] is an allophone of /t^w/.

Amuzgo

Amuzg has the bilabial trill, but uses it only exceptionally.

Baka

Baka (spoken in Vanuatu) has the bilabial trill, but it is used rarely.

Piraha

In Piraha, the bilabial trill is an allophone of /b/.

Yi

Some dialects of Yi have /ʙ/ as a phoneme.

See also

• List of phonetics topics

External links

• Linguist List posting about languages that have bilabial trill (http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/8/8-45.html)