Labial–velar consonant should not be confused with Labialized velar consonant.
pronounced as /notice/Labial–velar consonants are doubly articulated at the velum and the lips, such as pronounced as /[k͡p]/. They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to labialized velars, such as the stop consonant pronounced as /[kʷ]/ and the approximant pronounced as /[w]/.
Labial-velars are often written as digraphs. In the Kâte language, however, pronounced as //k͡p// is written Q q, and pronounced as //ɡ͡b// as Ɋ ɋ.
Globally, these types of consonants are quite rare, only existing in two regions: West and Central Africa on the one hand, Eastern New Guinea[1] and northern Vanuatu[2] on the other. There are 2 other isolated cases, allophonically in Vietnamese and in the Adu dialect of Nuosu (Yi).
Truly doubly articulated labial-velars include the stops pronounced as /[k͡p, ɡ͡b]/, the nasal pronounced as /[ŋ͡m]/, and the implosive pronounced as /[ɠ͜ɓ]/. To pronounce them, one must attempt to say the velar consonants but then close their lips for the bilabial component, and then release the lips. While 90% of the occlusion overlaps, the onset of the velar occurs slightly before that of the labial, and the release of the labial occurs slightly after that of the velar so the preceding vowel sounds as if it were followed by a velar, and the following vowel sounds as if it were preceded by a labial. The order of the letters in (IPA|k͡p) and (IPA|ɡ͡b) is therefore not arbitrary but motivated by the phonetic details of the sounds.
Phonemic labial–velars occur in the majority of languages in West and Central Africa (for example in the name of Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Ivory Coast; they are found in many Niger–Congo languages as well as in the Ubangian, Chadic and Central Sudanic families), and are relatively common in the eastern end of New Guinea. The rare implosive is only found in Lese, a Nilo-Saharan language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[3] [4] In Southeast Asia, they occur in the Adu dialect of Nuosu (Yi), which aside from its isolated location, is unusual in having a relatively large inventory of labial-velar consonants, including the rare aspirated version: pronounced as //k͡pʰ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ᵑɡ͡b, ŋ͡m//.[5]
Labial–velar stops can also occur as an ejective pronounced as /[k͡pʼ]/ (unattested) and a voiceless implosive pronounced as /[ƙ͜ƥ]/. Floyd (1981) and Clark (1990) report that voiced and voiceless implosives pronounced as //ɠ͡ɓ, ƙ͜ƥ// occur in Central Igbo. As stated above, the voiced implosive has been confirmed in Lese.
The Yele language of Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea, has both labial–velars and labial–alveolar consonants. Labial–velar stops and nasals also occur in Vietnamese but only word-finally.
| IPA | Description | Example | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | |||
| pronounced as /k͡p/ | voiceless labial–velar stop | Logba | ò-kpàyɔ̀ | pronounced as /[ò'''k͡p'''àjɔ̀]/ | 'God' | |
| pronounced as /ɡ͡b/ | voiced labial–velar stop | Ewe | Ewegbe | pronounced as /[ɛβɛ'''ɡ͡b'''e]/ | 'the Ewe language' | |
| ɠ̊͜ɓ̥ | voiceless labial–velar implosive | Central Igbo | kpọ́ | pronounced as /[ɠ̊͜ɓ̥ɔ́]/ | 'call' | |
| pronounced as /ɠ͡ɓ/ | voiced labial–velar implosive | Lese | pronounced as /[e'''ɠ͡ɓ'''e]/ | 'in' | ||
| pronounced as /ŋ͡m/ | labial-velar nasal | Vietnamese | cung | pronounced as /[ku'''ŋ͡m''']/ | 'sector' | |
| pronounced as /ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b/ | prenasalized voiced labial–velar stop | Nen[6] | dénḡ | pronounced as /[dɪ'''ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b''']/ | 'old-style bamboo pipe or container' | |
These sounds are clearly single consonants rather than consonant clusters. For example, Eggon contrasts pronounced as //bɡ//, pronounced as //ɡb//, and pronounced as //ɡ͡b//. The following possibilities are possible if tone is ignored:
| Single consonant | Two-consonant sequence | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /pom/ | to pound | pronounced as /kba/ | to dig | |
| pronounced as /abu/ | a dog | pronounced as /bɡa/ | to beat, to kill | |
| pronounced as /aku/ | a room | pronounced as /ak͡pki/ | a stomach | |
| pronounced as /ɡom/ | to break | pronounced as /ɡ͡bɡa/ | to grind | |
| pronounced as /k͡pu/ | to die | pronounced as /kpu/ | to kneel | |
| pronounced as /ɡ͡bu/ | to arrive | pronounced as /ɡba/ | to divide | |
Allophonic labial-velars are known from Vietnamese, where they are variants of the plain velar consonants pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //ŋ//.
Some languages, especially in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu, combine the labial–velar consonants with a labial–velar approximant release: pronounced as /[k͡pʷ]/, pronounced as /[ŋ͡mʷ]/. The extinct language Volow had a prenasalised labial-velar stop with labialization pronounced as /[ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡bʷ]/.[7] [8]
| IPA | Description | Example | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | |||
| pronounced as /k͡pʷ/ | voiceless labial–velar stop with labialization | Dorig | rqa | pronounced as /[rk͡pʷa]/[9] | 'woman' | |
| pronounced as /ŋ͡mʷ/ | labial-velar nasal with labialization | Mwesen | ēm̄ | pronounced as /[ɪŋ͡mʷ]/ | 'house' | |
| pronounced as /ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡bʷ/ | prenasalized voiced labial–velar stop with labialization | Volow | n-leq̄evēn | pronounced as /[nlɛᵑᵐɡ͡bʷɛβɪn]/ | 'woman' | |
Bilabial clicks are stops that involve closure at both the lips and the soft palate. Treatments often analyze the dorsal articulation as part of the airstream mechanism, and so consider such stops to be labial. However, there may be a distinction between the velar labial clicks pronounced as /[k͡ʘ ɡ͡ʘ ŋ͡ʘ]/ and the uvular labial clicks pronounced as /[q͡ʘ ɢ͡ʘ ɴ͡ʘ]/, which is not captured if they are described as simply labial.
pronounced as /navigation/