Bilabial consonant

Template:Short description Template:IPA notice In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips.

Frequency

Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tlingit, Chipewyan, Oneida, and Wichita,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> though all of these have a labial–velar approximant /w/.

Varieties

The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:

IPA	Description	Example
IPA	Description	Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
Template:IPA	voiceless bilabial nasal	Hmong	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Hmong
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial nasal	English	man	Template:IPA	man
Template:IPA	voiceless bilabial plosive	English	spin	Template:IPA	spin
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial plosive	English	bed	Template:IPA	bed
Template:IPA	voiceless bilabial affricate	Kaingang Template:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'seed'
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial affricate	Shipibo Template:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'small intestine'
Template:IPA	voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese	Template:Lang (Template:Transliteration)	Template:IPA	Mount Fuji
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial fricative	Ewe	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Ewe
Template:IPA	bilabial approximant	Spanish	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	wolf
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial flap	Mono<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'send'
Template:IPA	voiceless bilabial trill	Pará Arára<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>	Template:IPA		'to throw away'
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial trill	Nias	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	lower jaw
Template:IPA	bilabial ejective stop	Adyghe	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	meat
Template:IPA	bilabial ejective fricative	Yuchi<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:Gloss
Template:IPA	voiceless bilabial implosive	Serer	Template:Example needed
Template:IPA	voiced bilabial implosive	Jamaican Patois	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	beat
Template:IPA	bilabial clicks (many distinct consonants)	Nǁng	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	meat

Owere Igbo has a six-way contrast among bilabial stops: Template:IPA.Template:Citation needed

Other varieties

The extensions to the IPA also define a Template:Vanchor (Template:IPAblink) for smacking the lips together. A lip-smack in the non-percussive sense of the lips audibly parting would be Template:IPA.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The IPA chart shades out bilabial lateral consonants, which is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. The fricatives Template:IPA and Template:IPA are often lateral, but since no language makes a distinction for centrality, the allophony is not noticeable.