Inphonetics,labiodentals areconsonantsarticulated with the lowerlip and the upperteeth, such as[f] and[v]. In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written[sᶹ],[zᶹ],[ɹᶹ].[1]
The labiodental consonants identified by theInternational Phonetic Alphabet are:
| IPA | Description | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
| ɱ̊ | voiceless labiodental nasal | Angami[2] | [example needed] | allophone of/m̥/ before/ə/ | |
| ɱ | voiced labiodental nasal | Kukuya[3](disputed) | [ɱíì] | 'eyes' | |
| p̪ | voiceless labiodental plosive | Greek | σάπφειρος | [ˈsap̪firo̞s̠] | 'sapphire' |
| b̪ | voiced labiodental plosive | Sika | [example needed] | ||
| p̪͜f | voiceless labiodental affricate | Tsonga | timpfuvu | [tiɱp̪͜fuβu] | 'hippos' |
| b̪͜v | voiced labiodental affricate | Tsonga | shilebvu | [ʃileb̪͜vu] | 'chin' |
| f | voiceless labiodental fricative | English | fan | [fæn] | |
| v | voiced labiodental fricative | English | van | [væn] | |
| ʋ | voiced labiodental approximant | Dutch | wang | [ʋɑŋ] | 'cheek' |
| ⱱ | voiced labiodental flap | Mono | vwa | [ⱱa] | 'send' |
| p̪͜fʼ | labiodental ejective affricate | Tsetsaut[4][5] | apfʼo | [ap̪͜fʼo] | 'boil' |
| fʼ | labiodental ejective fricative | Yapese[6] | fʼaang | [fʼaːŋ] | 'type of eel' |
| ʘ̪ | labiodental click release (many different consonants) | Nǁng | ʘoe | [k͜ʘ̪oe] | 'meat' |
The IPA chart shades outlabiodental lateral consonants.[7] This is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. In fact, the fricatives[f] and[v] often have lateral airflow, but no language makes a distinction for centrality, and the allophony is not noticeable.
The IPA symbolɧ was devised for a consonant ofSwedish that has various pronunciations, in one dialect a rounded velarized labiodental less ambiguously transcribed as[fˠʷ]. The labiodental click is an allophonic variant of the (bi)labial click.
The only common labiodental sounds to occurphonemically are the fricatives and the approximant. The labiodental flap occurs phonemically in over a dozen languages, but it is restricted geographically to central and southeastern Africa.[8] With most othermanners of articulation, the norm arebilabial consonants (which together with labiodentals, form the class oflabial consonants).
[ɱ] is quite common, but in nearly all languages in which it occurs, it occurs only as anallophone of/m/ before labiodental consonants such as/v/ and/f/. It has been reported to occur phonemically in a dialect ofTeke, but similar claims in the past have proven spurious.
The XiNkuna dialect ofTsonga features a pair of affricates as phonemes. In some other languages, such asXhosa, affricates may occur as allophones of the fricatives. These differ from theGermanvoiceless labiodental affricate⟨pf⟩, which commences with abilabial p. All these affricates are rare sounds.[citation needed]
The stops are not confirmed to exist as separatephonemes in any language. They are sometimes written asȹ ȸ(qp anddbligatures). They may also be found in children's speech or as speech impediments.[9]
The frequency of labiodentals (especially f and v) has been argued to be linked to theAgricultural Revolution.[10][11]
