Voiceless bilabial stop

Voiceless bilabial stop
p
IPA number	101
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	p
Unicode (hex)	U+0070
X-SAMPA	p
Kirshenbaum	p
Braille
Sound
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The voiceless bilabial stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨p⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. The voiceless bilabial stop in English is spelled with 'p', as in speed.

Features

Features of the voiceless bilabial stop:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a stop.

• Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Varieties

Occurrence

The stop [p] is missing from about 10% of languages that have a [b]. (See voiced velar stop for another such gap.) This is an areal feature of the "circum-Saharan zone" (Africa north of the equator, including the Arabian peninsula). It is not known how old this areal feature is, and whether it might be a recent phenomenon due to Arabic as a prestige language (Arabic lost its /p/ in prehistoric times), or whether Arabic was itself affected by a more ancient areal pattern. It is found in other areas as well; for example, in Europe, Proto-Celtic and Old Basque are both reconstructed as having [b] but no [p].

Nonetheless, the [p] sound is very common cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [p], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between the aspirated [pʰ] and the plain [p] (also transcribed as [p˭] in extensions to the IPA).

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		паӏо	[paːʔʷa]	'hat'
Armenian	Eastern[1]	պապիկ	[pɑpik]	'grandpa'	Contrasts with aspirated form
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		pata	[paːta]	'face'
Basque		harrapatu	[(h)arapatu]	'to catch'
Bengali		পাল	[pal]	'sail'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	爆/pao	[paːu˧˧]	'to explode'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	爆炸/bàozhà	[pɑʊ˥˩ tʂa˥˩]	'to explode'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Catalan[2]		parlar	[pərˈɫa]	'to speak'	See Catalan phonology
Czech		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[3]	bog	[ˈpɔ̽ʊ̯ˀ]	'book'	Usually transcribed /b̥/ or /b/. Contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /pʰ/ or /p/. See Danish phonology
Dutch[4]		plicht	[plɪxt]	'duty'	See Dutch phonology
English		pack	[pʰæk]	'pack'	See English phonology
Finnish		pappa	[pappa]	'grandpa'	See Finnish phonology
French[5]		pomme	[pɔm]	'apple'	See French phonology
German		Pack	[pʰak]	'pile'	See German phonology
Greek		πόδι/pódi	[ˈpo̞ði]	'leg'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		પગ	[pəɡ]	'foot'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		פּקיד	[pakid]	'clerk'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		पल / پرچم	[pəl]	'moment'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		pápa	[ˈpaːpɒ]	'pope'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[6]		papà	[paˈpa]	'dad'	See Italian phonology
Japanese[7]		ポスト/posuto	[posɯto]	'mailbox'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		пэ	[pa]	'nose'
Korean		풀/pul	[pʰul]	'grass'	See Korean phonology
Lakota		púza	[ˈpʊza]	'dry'
Luxembourgish[8]		bëlleg	[ˈpɵ̞lɵ̞ɕ]	'cheap'	Less often voiced [b]. It is usually transcribed /b/, and contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /p/.[8] See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		пее	[pɛː]	'sing'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		panas	[pänäs]	'hot'
Maltese		aptit	[apˈtit]	'appetite'
Marathi		पाऊस	[pɑːˈuːs]	'rain'	See Marathi phonology
Mutsun		po·čor	[poːt͡ʃor]	'a sore'
Norwegian		pappa	[pɑpːɑ]	'dad'	See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		پانير	[pɑˈnir]	'cheese'
Pirahã		pibaóí	[ˈpìbàóí̯]	'otter'
Polish[9]		pas	[päs]	'belt'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[10]		pai	[paj]	'father'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਪੱਤਾ	[pət̪ːäː]	'leaf'
Romanian		pas	[pas]	'step'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[11]		плод	[pɫot̪]	'fruit'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Slovak		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'
Spanish[12]		peso	[ˈpe̞so̞]	'weight'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		apa	[ˈɑːpʰa]	'ape'	See Swedish phonology
Tsez		пу	[pʰu]	'side'	Contrasts with ejective form.
Turkish		kap	[kʰäp]	'pot'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		павук	[pɐ.ˈvuk]	'spider'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese [13]		nhíp	[ɲip˧ˀ˥]	'tweezers'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		panne	[ˈpɔnə]	'pan'
Yi		ꀠ/ba	[pa˧]	'exchange'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[14]	pan	[paŋ]	'bread'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato- alveolar Retroflex Alveolo- palatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal / Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼̊ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v tθ dð tθ̠ dð̠ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡħ ʡʕ ʔh Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ ʔ̞ Approximant ɸ˕ ʋ θ̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮ Trill ʙ r̼ r̥ r ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̼ l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ̼ ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̮ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Simple clicks ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃ ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃ ǁ ǁ̬ ǁ̃ ǃ˞ ǃ̬˞ ǃ̃˞ Other clicks ʘ̃ˀ ʘˀ ˀʘ̃ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qχ ʘ͡qʼ ʘ͡qχʼ ¡ ʞ Implosives ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥  Ejectives pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ tɕʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ̊ ɥ ɫ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m ɧ t͡p d͡b n͡m q͡ʡ — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible or not distinctive. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view