Bilabial stop explained

In phonetics and phonology, a bilabial stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with both lips (hence bilabial), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonant). The most common sounds are the stops pronounced as /[p]/ and pronounced as /[b]/, as in English pit and bit, and the voiced nasal pronounced as /[m]/. ^[1] More generally, several kinds are distinguished:

• pronounced as /[p]/, voiceless bilabial plosive^[2]
• pronounced as /[b]/, voiced bilabial plosive
• pronounced as /[m]/, voiced bilabial nasal
• pronounced as /[m̥]/, voiceless bilabial nasal
• pronounced as /[ɓ]/, voiced bilabial implosive
• pronounced as /[pʼ]/, bilabial ejective (rare)
• pronounced as /[ɓ̥]/ or pronounced as /[pʼ↓]/, voiceless bilabial implosive (very rare)

References

pronounced as /navigation/

Notes and References

1. Book: Ogden, Richard. An Introduction to English Phonetics. 2017. Edinburgh University Press. 9781474411752. 10.3366/j.ctt1g0b2j9.
2. Web site: Describing consonants. home.cc.umanitoba.ca. 2019-04-08.