Voiced bilabial fricative

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IPA – number	127
IPA – text	β
IPA – image
Entity	β
X-SAMPA	B
Kirshenbaum	B
Sound sample (help·info)

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 symbol β is the Greek letter beta. This symbol is also sometimes used to represent the bilabial approximant, though that is more clearly written with the lowering diacritic, β̞. In the English language, this sound is not used, but is made by making the normal "v" sound without fully closing the lips or without touching the top teeth to the lower lip.

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 3 References 4 Bibliography 5 See also

[edit] Features

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 type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the undertack diacritic may be used to indicate an approximant [β̞].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Akei		[βati]		'four'
Alekano		hanuva	[hɑnɯβɑ]	'nothing'
Amharic		አበባ	[aβəβa]	'flower'
Angor		fufung	[ɸuβuŋ]	'horn'
Berta		[βɑ̀lɑ̀ːziʔ]		'no'
Dahalo		[koːβo]		'to want'
Ewe		Ewe	[ɛβɛ]	'Ewe'
Japanese		神戸市/kōbe-shi	[koːβe ɕi]	'Kobe'	only in fast speech between vowels. See Japanese phonology
Kabyle		bri	[βri]	'to cut'
Occitan	Gascon	La-vetz	[laβets]	'then'
Portuguese	European[1]	rabo	[ˈɾaβu]	'tail'	Northern and central dialects.[2] See Portuguese phonology
Spanish[3]		lava	[ˈlaβ̞a]	'lava'	See Spanish phonology
Riverense Portuñol		brabo	[bɾaβo]	'angry'
Turkmen		watan	[βatan]	'country'

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Mateus, Maria Helena & Ernesto d'Andrade (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.