Consonant that is doubly articulated at the soft palate and the lips
Labial?velar consonants
are
doubly articulated
at the
velum
and the
lips
, such as
[k?p]
. They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to
labialized
velars, such as the
stop consonant
[k?]
and the
approximant
[w]
.
Labial-velars are often written as
digraphs
. In the
Kate language
, however,
/k?p/
is written Q q, and
/??b/
as
?
?.
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).
Plain labial-velar stops
[
edit
]
Truly doubly articulated labial-velars include the
stops
[k?p,
??b]
, the
nasal
[ŋ?m]
, and the
implosive
[???]
. 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 ⟨
k?p
⟩ and ⟨
??b
⟩ 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
:
/k?p?,
k?p,
??b,
???b,
ŋ?m/
.
[5]
Labial?velar stops can also occur as an
ejective
[k?p?]
(unattested) and a
voiceless implosive
[???]
. Floyd (1981) and Clark (1990) report that voiced and voiceless implosives
/???,
???/
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.
These sounds are clearly single consonants rather than
consonant clusters
. For example,
Eggon
contrasts
/b?/
,
/?b/
, and
/??b/
. The following possibilities are possible if tone is ignored:
Single consonant
|
Two-consonant sequence
|
pom
|
to pound
|
kba
|
to dig
|
abu
|
a dog
|
b?a
|
to beat, to kill
|
aku
|
a room
|
ak?pki
|
a stomach
|
?om
|
to break
|
??b?a
|
to grind
|
k?pu
|
to die
|
kpu
|
to kneel
|
??bu
|
to arrive
|
?ba
|
to divide
|
Allophonic
labial-velars are known from
Vietnamese
, where they are variants of the plain velar consonants
/k/
and
/ŋ/
.
Labialized labial-velars
[
edit
]
Some languages, especially in
Papua New Guinea
and in
Vanuatu
, combine the labial?velar consonants with a
labial?velar approximant release
:
[k?p?]
,
[ŋ?m?]
. The extinct language
Volow
had a prenasalised labial-velar stop with
labialization
[?????b?]
.
[7]
[8]
Velar labial clicks
[
edit
]
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
[k??
???
ŋ??]
and the uvular labial clicks
[q??
???
???]
, which is not captured if they are described as simply labial.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Maddieson, Ian
.
"WALS Online ? Chapter Presence of Uncommon Consonants"
.
wals.info
. Retrieved
2022-08-07
.
- ^
See p.31 of
Francois, Alexandre
(2016).
"The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu"
(PDF)
.
Faits de Langues
.
47
: 25?60.
doi
:
10.1163/19589514-047-01-900000003
.
S2CID
171459404
.
- ^
Didier Demolin, Bernard Teston (September 1997).
"Phonetic characteristics of double articulations in some Mangbutu-Efe languages"
(PDF)
.
International Speech Communication Association
: 803?806.
- ^
Guldemann, Tom (2018-09-10).
The Languages and Linguistics of Africa
. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
ISBN
978-3-11-042175-0
.
- ^
Hajek, John
(2006). "On doubly articulated labial-velar stops and nasals in Tibeto-Burman".
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
.
29
(2): 127?130.
- ^
See p.332 of:
Evans, Nicholas
; Miller, Julia Colleen (2016).
"Nen"
.
Journal of the International Phonetic Association
.
46
(3): 331?349.
doi
:
10.1017/S0025100315000365
.
ISSN
1475-3502
.
.
- ^
See p.116 of:
Francois, Alexandre (2005),
"A typological overview of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu"
,
Linguistic Typology
,
9
(1): 115?146,
doi
:
10.1515/lity.2005.9.1.115
,
S2CID
55878308
.
- ^
Presentation of the Volow language
, by linguist
A. Francois
.
- ^
See pp.429-430 of:
Francois, Alexandre (2010),
"Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment"
,
Phonology
,
27
(3): 393?434,
doi
:
10.1017/s0952675710000205
,
S2CID
62628417
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