Editing Labiodental consonant

{{Short description|Consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2014}}
{{IPA notice}}
In [[phonetics]], '''labiodentals''' are [[consonant]]s [[Place of articulation|articulated]] with the lower [[lip]] and the upper [[teeth]], such as {{IPA|[f]}} and {{IPA|[v]}}. In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written {{IPA|[sᶹ], [zᶹ], [ɹᶹ]}}.<ref>John Laver (1994: 323) ''Principles of Phonetics''.</ref>

==Labiodental consonants in the IPA==
The labiodental consonants identified by the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] are:

{| class=wikitable
|-
!rowspan="2"| IPA
!rowspan="2"| Description
!colspan="4"| Example
|-
! Language
! Orthography
! IPA
! Meaning
|-
! {{IPA|ɱ̊}}
| [[voiceless labiodental nasal]]
| [[Angami language|Angami]]<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Phonetic structures of Khonoma Angami |last1=Blankenship |first1=Barbara |last2=Ladefoged |first2=Peter |last3=Bhaskararao |first3=Peri |last4=Chase |first4=Nichumeno |journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area |volume=16 |issue=2 |date=Fall 1993 |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/blankenship1992phonetic.pdf}}</ref>
| colspan=2 align=center | {{example needed|date=November 2022}}
| allophone of {{IPA|/m̥/}} before {{IPA|/ə/}} 
|-
! {{IPA|ɱ}}
| [[voiced labiodental nasal]]
| [[Kukuya language|Kukuya]]{{sfnp|Paulian|1975|p=41}} <small>(disputed)</small>
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| {{IPA|[ɱíì]}}
| 'eyes'
|-
! {{IPA|p̪}}
| [[voiceless labiodental plosive]]
| [[Greek language|Greek]]
| σά'''π'''φειρος
| {{IPA|[ˈsa'''p̪'''firo̞s̠]}}
| 'sapphire'
|-
! {{IPA|b̪}}
| [[voiced labiodental plosive]]
| [[Sika language|Sika]]
| colspan="3" | {{example needed|date=December 2018}}
|-
! {{IPA|p̪͜f}}
| [[voiceless labiodental affricate]]
| [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]]
| tim'''pf'''uvu
| {{IPA|[tiɱ'''p̪͜f'''uβu]}}
| 'hippos'
|-
! {{IPA|b̪͜v}}
| [[voiced labiodental affricate]]
| [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]]
| shile'''bv'''u
| {{IPA|[ʃile'''b̪͜v'''u]}}
| 'chin'
|-
! {{IPA|f}}
| [[voiceless labiodental fricative]]
| [[English language|English]]
| '''f'''an
| {{IPA|['''f'''æn]}}
| 
|-
! {{IPA|v}}
| [[voiced labiodental fricative]]
| [[English language|English]]
| '''v'''an
| {{IPA|['''v'''æn]}}
| 
|-
! {{IPA|ʋ}}
| [[voiced labiodental approximant]]
| [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
| '''w'''ang
| {{IPA|['''ʋ'''ɑŋ]}}
| 'cheek'
|-
! {{IPA|ⱱ}}
| [[voiced labiodental flap]]
| [[Mono language (Congo)|Mono]]
| '''vw'''a
| {{IPA|['''ⱱ'''a]}}
| 'send'
|-	
! {{IPA|p̪͜fʼ}}
| [[labiodental ejective affricate]]
|[[Tsetsaut language|Tsetsaut]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boas |first1=Franz |first2=Pliny Earle |last2=Goddard |date=July 1924 |title=Ts'ets'aut, an Athapascan Language from Portland Canal, British Columbia |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=1–35 |doi=10.1086/463746 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=1264498 |title=The Position of the Tsetsaut among Northern Athapaskans |last=Tharp |first=George W. |date=January 1972 |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=14–25 |doi=10.1086/465179|s2cid=145318136 }}</ref>
|ap'''fʼ'''o
|{{IPA|[ap̪͜fʼo]}}
| 'boil'
|-
! {{IPA|fʼ}}
| [[labiodental ejective fricative]]
|[[Yapese language|Yapese]]<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Ballantyne |first=Keira Gebbie |year=2005 |title=Textual Structure and Discourse Prominence in Yapese Narrative |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of Hawai'i |page=32 |hdl=10125/11702 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
| '''fʼ'''aang
| {{IPA|[fʼaːŋ]}}
| 'type of eel'
|-
! {{IPA|ʘ̪}}
| [[labial click|labiodental click]] release (many different consonants)
| [[Nǁng language|Nǁng]]
| '''ʘ'''oe
| {{IPA|['''k͜ʘ̪'''oe]}}
| 'meat'
|}

The IPA chart shades out ''labiodental lateral consonants''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=IPA|date=2018|title=Consonants (Pulmonic)|url=https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/IPA_Kiel_2018_pulmonicC_1200.png|access-date=June 20, 2020|website=International Phonetic Association}}</ref> This is sometimes read as indicating that such sounds are not possible. In fact, the fricatives {{IPA|[f]}} and {{IPA|[v]}} often have lateral airflow, but no language makes a distinction for centrality, and the allophony is not noticeable.

The IPA symbol {{IPA|ɧ}} refers to a sound occurring in [[Swedish language|Swedish]], officially described as similar to the [[velar consonant|velar]] fricative [x], but one dialectal variant is a rounded, velarized labiodental, less ambiguously rendered as {{IPA|[fˠʷ]}}. The labiodental click is an allophonic variant of the (bi)labial click.

==Occurrence==
The only common labiodental sounds to occur [[phoneme|phonemically]] are the fricatives and the approximant. The labiodental flap occurs phonemically in over a dozen languages, but it is restricted geographically to central and southeastern Africa.{{sfnp|Olson|Hajek|2003}} With most other [[Manner of articulation|manners of articulation]], the norm are [[bilabial consonant]]s (which together with labiodentals, form the class of [[labial consonant]]s).

{{IPA|[ɱ]}} is quite common, but in all or nearly all languages in which it occurs, it occurs only as an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/m/}} before labiodental consonants such as {{IPA|/v/}} and {{IPA|/f/}}. It has been reported to occur phonemically in a dialect of [[Teke languages|Teke]], but similar claims in the past have proven spurious.

The XiNkuna dialect of [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]] features a pair of affricates as phonemes. In some other languages, such as [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]], affricates may occur as allophones of the fricatives. These differ from the [[German language|German]] [[voiceless labiodental affricate]] {{angbr|pf}}, which commences with a [[voiceless bilabial stop|bilabial p]]. All these affricates are rare sounds.{{cn|reason=This can't include the last example, since in German they are not rare.|date=November 2020}}

The stops are not confirmed to exist as separate [[phoneme]]s in any language. They are sometimes written as ''ȹ ȸ'' ''(qp'' and ''db'' [[Typographic ligature|ligature]]s). They may also be found in children's speech or as speech impediments.<ref>{{Cite journal |first1=Anne |last1=Hesketh |first2=Evgenia |last2=Dima |first3=Veronica |last3=Nelson |date=2007 |title=Teaching phoneme awareness to pre-literate children with speech disorder: a randomized controlled trial |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17514541/ |journal=International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders |language=en |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=251–271 |doi=10.1080/13682820600940141 |issn=1368-2822 |pmid=17514541}}</ref>

=={{vanchor|Dentolabial}} consonants==
Dentolabial consonants are the articulatory opposite of labiodentals: They are pronounced by contacting lower teeth against the [[upper lip]]. The diacritic for dentolabial in the [[Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet|extensions of the IPA]] for disordered speech is a superscript bridge, {{angbr IPA|◌͆}}, by analogy with the subscript bridge used for labiodentals: thus {{angbr IPA|m͆ p͆ b͆ f͆ v͆}}. Complex consonants such as affricates, prenasalized stops and the like are also possible.
These are rare cross-linguistically, likely due to the prevalence of [[malocclusion|dental malocclusions]] (especially [[retrognathism]]) that make them difficult to produce,<ref>{{cite journal |pmid=33441808 |date=2021 |last1=Everett |first1=C. |last2=Chen |first2=S. |title=Speech adapts to differences in dentition within and across populations |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=1066 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-80190-8 |pmc=7806889 }}</ref> though the voiceless dentolabial fricative {{IPA|[f͆]}} is used in some of the southwestern dialects of [[Greenlandic language|Greenlandic]].{{sfnp|Vebæk|2006|p=20}}

== Origins ==
The commonality of labiodentals (especially f and v) has been argued to be linked to the [[Neolithic Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=ScienceAlert |date=2019-03-14 |title=The Rise of Farming And Soft Foods Might Have Forever Changed The Way Humans Speak |url=https://www.sciencealert.com/softer-foods-actually-changed-the-way-ancient-humans-spoke |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=ScienceAlert |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Alison |last=George |title=Humans couldn't pronounce 'f' and 'v' sounds before farming developed |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196580-humans-couldnt-pronounce-f-and-v-sounds-before-farming-developed/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Place of articulation]]
* [[List of phonetics topics]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{SOWL}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Kenneth S. |first2=John |last2=Hajek |year=2003 |title=Crosslinguistic insights on the labial flap |journal=Linguistic Typology |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=157–186 |doi=10.1515/lity.2003.014}}
* {{cite book |last=Paulian |first=Christiane |year=1975 |title=Le kukuya, langue teke du Congo: phonologie, classes nominales |publisher=SELAF |location=Paris |isbn=9782852970083}}
* {{cite book |last=Vebæk |first=Mâliâraq |year=2006 |title=The southernmost People of Greenland-Dialects and Memories |isbn=978-87-635-1273-2 |doi=10.26530/OAPEN_342373 |doi-access=free |series=Monographs on Greenland |volume=337}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal
|last1=Blasi
|first1=Damián E.
|last2=Moran
|first2=Steven
|last3=Moisik
|first3=Scott R.
|last4=Widmer
|first4=Paul
|last5=Dediu
|first5=Dan
|last6=Bickel
|first6=Balthasar
|year=2019
|title=Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration
|journal=Science
|volume=363
|issue=6432
|page=eaav3218
|doi=10.1126/science.aav3218
|pmid=30872490
|doi-access=free
}}
*{{cite journal
|last=Hockett
|first=Charles
|year=1989
|title=Distinguished Lecture: F
|journal=American Anthropologist
|volume=87
|issue=2
|pages=263–281
|doi=10.1525/aa.1985.87.2.02a00020
|doi-access=
|jstor=678561
}}
*{{cite news
|last1=Moran
|first1=Steven
|last2=Bickel
|first2=Balthasar
|date=15 March 2019
|url=https://theconversation.com/softer-processed-foods-changed-the-way-ancient-humans-spoke-113599
|title=Softer, processed foods changed the way ancient humans spoke
|work=The Conversation
}}

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