This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Doubly articulated consonant" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primaryplaces of articulation of the samemanner (both plosive, or both nasal, etc.). They are a subset ofco-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articulated consonants withsecondary articulation; that is, a second articulation not of the same manner. An example of a doubly articulated consonant is thevoiceless labial–velar plosive[k͡p], which is a[k] and a[p] pronounced simultaneously. On the other hand, the voicelesslabialized velar plosive[kʷ] has only a single stop articulation,velar ([k]), with a simultaneousapproximant-like rounding of the lips. In some dialects ofArabic, thevoiceless velar fricative[x] has a simultaneousuvular trill, but this is not considered double articulation either.

There are four independently controllable articulations that may double up in the same manner of articulation:labial,coronal,dorsal, andpharyngeal. (Theglottis controlsphonation, and works simultaneously with many consonants. It is not normally considered an articulator, and anejective[kʼ], with simultaneous closure of thevelum andglottis, is not considered a doubly articulated consonant.)

Approximant consonants, such as[w] and[ɥ], may be either doubly or secondarily articulated. For example, inEnglish,/w/^{[example needed]} is a labialized velar that could be transcribed as[ɰʷ], but theJapanese/w/ is closer to a true labial–velar[ɰ͡β̞].^{[citation needed]} However, it is normal practice to use the symbols ⟨w⟩ and ⟨ɥ⟩ for thelabialized approximants, and some linguists restrict the symbols to that usage.

No claims have ever been made for doubly articulatedflaps ortrills, such as a simultaneous alveolar–uvular trill,*[ʀ͡r], and these are not expected to be found. Several claimshave been made for doubly articulatedfricatives oraffricates, most notoriously aSwedish phoneme which has its own IPA symbol,[ɧ]. However, laboratory measurements have never succeeded in demonstrating simultaneous frication at two points of articulation, and such sounds turn out to be either secondary articulation, or a sequence of two non-simultaneous fricatives. (Despite its name, the "voiceless labial–velar fricative"[ʍ] is actually avoiceless approximant; the name is a historical remnant from before the distinction was made.^{[citation needed]}) Such sounds can be made, with effort, but it is very difficult for a listener to discern them, and therefore they are not expected to be found as distinctive sounds in any language.

Clicks are sometimes said to be doubly articulated, as they involve a coronal (more rarely labial) forward articulation, which defines the various 'types' of clicks and the IPA letter assigned to them, plus adorsal closure. However, this second, dorsal place of closure functions as part of the controlling mechanism of thelingual ingressive airstream used to generate the click. Thus, much as the glottal closure of ejectives (the airstream-generating mechanism of such consonants) is not considered to be a second place of articulation, clicks are not generally described as such either. Indeed, it is possible to have a true doubly articulated click, such as the labial–dental allophone,[ʘ͡ǀ], of the bilabial click/ʘ/ inTaa.^[1]

This leaves stops, and both oral and nasal doubly articulated stops are found. However, there is a great asymmetry in the places of their articulation. Of the six possible combinations oflabial,coronal,dorsal, andpharyngeal, one is common, and the others vanishingly rare.

• The common articulation islabial–dorsal, which includeslabial–velar stops such as the[k͡p] mentioned above, andlabial–uvularstops such as [q͡p]. Labial–velar stops are found throughoutWest andCentral Africa, as well as easternNew Guinea. Labial-uvular stops are much rarer, but have been found in aMangbutu-Efe language spoken in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo andUganda:Lese,^[2] and a labial–uvular stop has been found inIha, a language spoken on the Indonesian side ofPapua.^[3]Lese contains some highly unusual doubly articulated stops that have been confirmed by acoustic and aerodynamic measurements, including a phonemic labial–uvular stop with significant lowering and a stronger release [q͡ɓ], an allophonic voiced labial–velar stop with a voiceless release [ɡ͡p] (which occurs as an allophone of a voiced labial–velar implosive, [ɠɓ]), and an allophonic voiceless labial–velar stop with a trilled release, [k͡pʙ̥] (only present inEfe).^[2]
• A second possibility,labial–coronal, is attested phonemically bylabial–(post)alveolar andlabial–retroflex stops in a single language,Yélî Dnye of New Guinea. Some West African languages, such asDagbani andNzema, have labial–postalveolars as allophones of labial–velars before high front vowels.
• A third possibility,coronal–dorsal, is found marginally in a few languages.Isoko, spoken inNigeria, haslaminaldental stops (plosives and nasals) that in some dialects are realized asdental–palatal stops. However, these are notcontrastive with either dental or palatal stops, unlike the articulations mentioned above, andPeter Ladefoged considers them to be "accidental contacts in two regions", rather than being inherently double.Hadza has alveolar–palatal lateral affricates, but the dental contact is optional. Similarly, several languages ofAustralia, such asMaung, have dental–palatals which are variants of laminalpostalveolars, with an "extended closure covering the entire region from the teeth to the hard palate". In both cases, the double articulations are variants of laminal consonants, which have inherently broad contact with the roof of the mouth.Rwanda is sometimes noted as havingmy/mɲ/,by/bɟ/,tw/tkʷ/, etc., but these areconsonant sequences, not double articulation.
• The other three possibilities, which would involve theepiglottis, had not been known until recently.^[when?] However, with the advent offiber-opticlaryngoscopy, a greater variety of epiglottal and laryngeal activity has been found than had been expected. For example, theSomali/q/ was recently found to be auvular–epiglottal consonant[q͡ʡ].^[4] It is not known how widespread such sounds might be, or ifepiglottal consonants might combine with coronal or labial consonants.

The Bantu languagesIla,Kafue Twa andLundwe have been described as havinglabio-glottal andpalato-glottal fricatives. SeeIla language for a description.

Triply articulated consonants are only attested as glottalized doubly articulated consonants and clicks, and this can be argued to be an effect ofphonation orairstream mechanism rather than as a third articulation, just as other glottalized consonants are not considered to be doubly articulated. The most obvious case are the various types of glottalized clicks mentioned above. Another example is'unreleased' final/k/ inVietnamese, which after/u/ or/w/ is often labial–velar[k͡p̚ʔ].

• Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson,The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell Publishers, 1996.ISBN 0-631-19815-6

• Doubly articulated consonants
• Phonetics

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from January 2018
• All articles needing additional references
• Pages with plain IPA
• All articles needing examples
• Articles needing examples from August 2024
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2010
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2021
• All articles with vague or ambiguous time
• Vague or ambiguous time from November 2025