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Voiceless bilabial implosive
ɓ̥
ƥ
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Avoiceless bilabial implosive is a rareconsonantal sound, used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɓ̥⟩ or theoretically ⟨pʼ↓⟩. A dedicated IPA letter, ⟨ƥ⟩, was retired in 1993.

Features of a voiceless bilabial implosive:

• Itsmanner of articulation isocclusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with nonasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is aplosive.
• Itsplace of articulation isbilabial, which means it is articulated with bothlips.
• Itsphonation is un-voiced, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is anoral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, thecentral–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• Theairstream mechanism isimplosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping theglottis downward. As it is voiceless, the glottis is completely closed, and there is no pulmonic airstream at all.

A rare and evidently unstable sound,/ɓ̥/ is found in theSerer of Senegal and in the Owere dialect ofIgbo in Nigeria. It can also be found inNgiti in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[1] It is also found in multipleMayan languages, such asKaqchikel,Mam, andAkatek.

• Voiced bilabial implosive

• Mc Laughlin, Fiona (2005), "Voiceless implosives in Seereer-Siin",Journal of the International Phonetic Association,35 (2):201–214,doi:10.1017/S0025100305002215,S2CID 145717014

• List of languages with[ɓ̥] onPHOIBLE

• Bilabial consonants
• Implosives
• Voiceless oral consonants

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• Short description matches Wikidata
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