Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, includingTlingit,Chipewyan,Oneida, andWichita,[1] though all of these have a labial–velar approximant/w/.
TheIPA chart shades outbilabial lateral consonants, which is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. The fricatives[ɸ] and[β] are often lateral, but since no language makes a distinction for centrality, the allophony is not noticeable.
^Maddieson, Ian (2008),"Absence of Common Consonants", in Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S.; Gil, David; Comrie, Bernard (eds.),The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Munich: Max Planck Digital Library
^de Souza, Isaac Costa (2010)."3"(PDF).A Phonological Description of "Pet Talk" in Arara (MA). SIL Brazil. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2013-10-12. Retrieved2014-01-09.
^Crawford, James M. (1973). "Yuchi Phonology".International Journal of American Linguistics.39 (3):173–179.doi:10.1086/465261.S2CID224808560.
McDorman, Richard E. (1999).Labial Instability in Sound Change: Explanations for the Loss of /p/. Chicago: Organizational Knowledge Press.ISBN0-9672537-0-5.
Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001)."Shipibo".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.31 (2):281–285.doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109.
