Voiced bilabial fricative
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| Voiced bilabial fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| β | |||
| IPA Number | 127 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | β | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+03B2 | ||
| X-SAMPA | B | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Audio sample | |||
.svg)
| Voiced bilabial approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| β̞ | |||
| ʋ̟ | |||
| |||
| Audio sample | |||
The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨β⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B. The official symbol ⟨β⟩ is the Greek letter beta.
This letter is also often used to represent the bilabial approximant, though that is more precisely written with a lowering diacritic, that is ⟨β̞⟩. That sound may also be transcribed as an advanced labiodental approximant ⟨ʋ̟⟩, in which case the diacritic is again frequently omitted, since no contrast is likely.[1][2] It has been proposed that either a turned ⟨β⟩ or reversed ⟨β⟩ be used as a dedicated symbol for the bilabial approximant, but despite occasional usage this has not gained general acceptance.[3]
It is extremely rare for a language to make a phonemic contrast between the voiced bilabial fricative and the bilabial approximant. The Mapos Buang language of New Guinea contains this contrast. Its bilabial approximant is analyzed as filling a phonological gap in the labiovelar series of the consonant system rather than the bilabial series.[4] Proto-Germanic[5] and Proto-Italic[6] are also reconstructed as having had this contrast, albeit with [β] being an allophone for another consonant in both cases.
The bilabial fricative is diachronically unstable (likely to be considerably varied between dialects of a language that makes use of it) and is likely to shift to [v].[7]
The sound is not used in English dialects except for Chicano English, but it can be produced by approximating the normal English [v] between the lips.
Features[edit]
Features of the voiced bilabial fricative:
- Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
- Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Occurrence[edit]
Voiced bilabial fricative[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akei | [βati] | 'four' | |||
| Alekano | hanuva | [hɑnɯβɑ] | 'nothing' | ||
| Angor | fufung | [ɸuβuŋ] | 'horn' | ||
| Bengali | ভিসা | [βisa] | 'Visa' | Allophone of /bʱ/. See Bengali phonology | |
| Berta | [βɑ̀lɑ̀ːziʔ] | 'no' | |||
| Catalan[8] | abans | [əˈβans] | 'before' | Approximant or fricative. Allophone of /b/. Mainly found in betacist (/b/ and /v/ merging) dialects. See Catalan phonology | |
| Min Dong Chinese | Fuzhou[9] | 初八 chĕ̤ báik |
[t͡sœ˥˧βaiʔ˨˦] | 'eighth day of the month' | Allophone of /p/ and /pʰ/ in certain intervocalic positions.[9] |
| Wu Chinese | Chuansha | 碗哉 ve tze |
[βe̝˧˧˦tsɛ̝˥] | 'bowl' | Usually [v] in other Wu Chinese dialects[10] |
| Comorian | upvendza | [uβendza] | 'to love' | Contrasts with both [v] and [w] | |
| Coptic | Bohairic | ⲧⲱⲃⲓ | [ˈdoːβi] | 'brick' | Shifted to [w] with a syllable coda allophone of [b] in a later stage. |
| Sahidic | ⲧⲱⲱⲃⲉ | [ˈtoːβə] | |||
| Dahalo[11] | [koːβo] | 'to want' | Weak fricative or approximant. It is a common intervocalic allophone of /b/, and may be simply a plosive [b] instead.[11] | ||
| English | Chicano | very | [βɛɹi] | 'very' | May be realized as [b] instead. |
| Ewe[12] | Eʋe | [èβe] | 'Ewe' | Contrasts with both [v] and [w] | |
| German[13][14] | aber | [ˈaːβɐ] | 'but' | Intervocalic and pre-lateral allophone of /b/ in casual speech.[13][14] See Standard German phonology | |
| Hopi | tsivot | [tsi:βot] | 'five' | ||
| Kabyle | bri | [βri] | 'to cut' | ||
| Kinyarwanda | abana | [aβa:na] | 'children' | ||
| Korean | 추후/chuhu/追後 | [ˈt͡ɕʰuβʷu] | 'later' | Allophone of /h/. See Korean phonology | |
| Luhya | Wanga Dialect | Nabongo | [naβonɡo] | 'title for a king' | |
| Mapos Buang[4] | venġévsën | [βəˈɴɛβt͡ʃen] | 'prayer' | Mapos Buang has both a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant as separate phonemes. The fricative is transcribed as ⟨v⟩, and the approximant as ⟨w⟩.[4] | |
| Nepali | सभा | [sʌβä] | 'Meeting' | Allophone of /bʱ/. See Nepali phonology | |
| Portuguese | European[15][16] | sábado | [ˈsaβɐðu] | 'Saturday' | Allophone of /b/. See Portuguese phonology |
| Ripuarian | Colognian[citation needed] | wing | [βɪŋ] | 'wine' | Allophone of syllable-initial /v/ for some speakers; can be [ʋ ~ w ~ ɰ] instead.[citation needed] See Colognian phonology |
| Sardinian | Logudorese dialect[17] | paba |  [ˈpäːβä] (help·info) |
'pope' | Intervocalic allophone of /b/ as well as word-initial /p/ when the preceding word ends with a vowel and there is no pause between the words.[17] |
| Turkish[18] | vücut | [βy̠ˈd͡ʒut̪] | 'body' | Allophone of /v/ before and after rounded vowels.[18] See Turkish phonology | |
| Turkmen | watan | [βatan] | 'country' | ||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[19] | [example needed] | Allophone of /b/ | ||
Bilabial approximant[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amharic[20] | አበባ | [aβ̞əβ̞a] | 'flower' | Allophone of /b/ medially between sonorants.[20] | |
| Basque[21] | alaba | [alaβ̞a] | 'daughter' | Allophone of /b/ | |
| Catalan[22] | abans | [əˈβ̞ans] | 'before' | Approximant or fricative. Allophone of /b/. Mainly found in betacist (/b/ and /v/ merging) dialects. See Catalan phonology | |
| Japanese[23] | 神戸市/kōbe-shi | [ko̞ːβ̞e̞ ɕi] | 'Kobe' | Allophone of /b/ only in fast speech between vowels. See Japanese phonology | |
| Limburgish[24][25] | wèlle | [ˈβ̞ɛ̝lə] | 'to want' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. | |
| Lombard | el nava via | [el ˈnaβ̞a ˈβ̞ia] | 'he was going away' | Regular pronunciation of /v/ when intervocalic. Used also as an allophone for other positions. | |
| Mapos Buang[4] | wabeenġ | [β̞aˈᵐbɛːɴ] | 'kind of yam' | Mapos Buang has both a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant as separate phonemes. The fricative is transcribed as {v}, and the approximant as {w}.[4] | |
| Occitan | Gascon | lavetz | [laˈβ̞ets] | 'then' | Allophone of /b/ |
| Ripuarian | Kerkrade[26] | sjwaam | [ʃβ̞aːm] | 'smoke' | Weakly rounded; contrasts with /v/.[26] See Kerkrade dialect phonology |
| Spanish[27] | lava | [ˈläβ̞ä] | 'lava' | Ranges from close fricative to approximant.[28] Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[29] | aber | [ˈɑːβ̞eɾ] | 'problem' | Allophone of /b/ in casual speech. See Swedish phonology |
| Ukrainian[30] | вона | [β̞oˈnɑ] | 'she' | An approximant; the most common prevocalic realization of /w/. Can vary with labiodental [ʋ].[30] See Ukrainian phonology | |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Peter Ladefoged (1968) A Phonetic Study of West African Languages: An Auditory-instrumental Survey, p. 26.
- ^ Joyce Thambole Mogatse Mathangwane (1996), Phonetics and Phonology of Ikalanga: A Diachronic and Synchronic Study, vol. 1, p. 79
- ^ Ball, Martin J.; Howard, Sara J.; Miller, Kirk (2018). "Revisions to the extIPA chart". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 48 (2): 155–164. doi:10.1017/S0025100317000147. S2CID 151863976.
- ^ a b c d e Mose Lung Rambok and Bruce Hooley (2010). Central Buang‒English Dictionary (PDF). Summer Institute of Linguistics Papua New Guinea Branch. ISBN 978-9980-0-3589-9.
- ^ R.D. Fulk, A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics, 3 (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2018), doi:10.1075/sigl.3, ISBN 978 90 272 6312 4, p. 102.
- ^ Silvestri, Domenico (1998), "The Italic Languages", in Ramat, Anna Giacalone; Ramat, Paolo (eds.), The Indo-European languages, Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 322–344
References[edit]
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
- Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8
- Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
- Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies, 29 (2): 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526
- Hayward, Katrina; Hayward, Richard J. (1999), "Amharic", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 45–50, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
- Hualde, José Ignacio (1991), Basque phonology, New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-05655-7
- Krech, Eva Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (2009), Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-018202-6
- Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
- Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; Ladefoged, Peter (1993), "Phonetic structures of Dahalo", in Maddieson, Ian (ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages, vol. 84, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 25–65
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana María; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
- Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X
- Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
- Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
- Picard, Marc (1987), "On the Palatalization and Fricativization of W", International Journal of American Linguistics, 53 (3): 362–365, doi:10.1086/466063, S2CID 144308172
- Pope, Mildred (1966), From Latin to Modern French, Manchester: Manchester University Press
- Quilis, Antonio (1981), Fonética acústica de la lengua española, Gredos, ISBN 9788424901325
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997) [1987], Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (2nd ed.), Kerkrade: Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer, ISBN 90-70246-34-1, archived from the original on 2015-09-19, retrieved 2015-09-09
- Wheeler, Max W (2005), The Phonology Of Catalan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-925814-7
- Zhuqing, Li (2002), Fuzhou Phonology and Grammar, Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press, ISBN 9781881265931
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External links[edit]
- List of languages with [β] on PHOIBLE
