| Above: | Voiceless bilabial trill |
| Ipa Symbol: | ʙ̥ |
| Xsampa: | B\_0 |
The voiceless bilabial trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|ʙ̥). The X-SAMPA symbol is B\_0
This sound is typologically extremely rare. It occurs in languages such as Pará Arára[1] and Sercquiais.
Only a few languages contrast voiced and voiceless bilabial trills phonemically – e.g. Mangbetu of Congo and Ninde of Vanuatu.[2] [3]
There is also a very rare voiceless alveolar bilabially trilled affricate, pronounced as /[t̪͡ʙ̥]/ (written (IPA|tᵖ̃) in Everett & Kern) reported from Pirahã and from a few words in the Chapacuran languages Wariʼ and Oro Win. The sound also appears as an allophone of the labialized voiceless alveolar stop pronounced as //tʷ// of Abkhaz and Ubykh, but in those languages it is more often realised by a doubly articulated stop pronounced as /[t͡p]/. In the Chapacuran languages, pronounced as /[tʙ̥]/ is reported almost exclusively before rounded vowels such as pronounced as /[o]/ and pronounced as /[y]/.
Additionally, Lese has another rare trilled affricate, a labial–velar trilled affricate pronounced as /[k͡pʙ̥]/, which occurs as an allophone of the voiceless labial–velar plosive pronounced as /[k͡p]/.
Features of the bilabial trill:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahamb[4] | [ŋãˈʙ̥̍s] | 'it foams' | Contrasts pronounced as //ʙ̥, ᵐʙ, ⁿᵈr//. | ||
| Lese[5] | [uk͡pʙ̥u] | 'head' | Allophone of /k͡p/ | ||
| Neverver[6] | pronounced as /[naɣaᵐʙ̥]/ | 'fire, firewood' | |||
| Pará Arára[7] | pronounced as /[ʙ̥uta]/ | 'to throw away' | |||
| Ubykh | тваҳəбза/tuaqhəbza | [t͡ʙ̥aχəbza] | 'Ubykh language' | Allophone of pronounced as //tʷ//. See Ubykh phonology | |
| Wariʼ | tpotpowe | pronounced as /[t͡ʙ̥ot͡ʙ̥oweʔ]/ | 'chicken' | ||
pronounced as /navigation/