A voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is either a Latin or Greek-style beta, .
This letter is also often used to represent a voiced bilabial approximant, though that is more precisely written with a lowering diacritic, that is . This sound may also be transcribed as an advanced labiodental approximant , in which case the diacritic is again frequently omitted, since no contrast between the two is likely within a language. It has been proposed that either a turned or reversed , among others, be used as a dedicated symbol for the bilabial approximant; however, despite occasional usage, none have gained general acceptance.
It is extremely rare for a language to make a phonemic contrast between a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant. The Mapos Buang language of New Guinea contains this contrast. Its bilabial approximant is analyzed as filling a phonological gap in the labiovelar series of the consonant system rather than the bilabial series. Proto-Germanic and Proto-Italic are reconstructed as having had a contrast between the voiced bilabial fricative and the voiced labial–velar approximant , albeit with being an allophone for another consonant in both cases. In Bashkir language, it is an intervocal allophone of , and it is contrastive with : (), ().
A bilabial fricative is diachronically unstable (likely to be considerably varied between dialects of a language that makes use of it) and is likely to shift to ., citing
The sound is not the primary realization of any sound in English dialects except for Chicano English, but it can be produced by approximating the normal English between the lips; it can also sometimes occur as an allophone of after bilabial consonants.
Features Features of a voiced bilabial fricative:
Occurrence
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Akei 'four' Alekano 'nothing' Angor 'horn' Bengali Eastern dialects / 'Visa' Allophone of in Bangladesh and Tripura; used in Western dialects. Berta 'no' Chinese Fuzhou / 'eighth day of the month' Allophone of and in certain intervocalic positions. Suburban Shanghainese / 'bowl' Usually or in other Wu dialects Comorian 'to love' Contrasts with both and Coptic Bohairic 'brick' Shifted to with a syllable coda allophone of in a later stage. Sahidic Dahalo 'to want' Weak fricative or approximant. It is a common intervocalic allophone of , and may be simply a plosive instead. English Some dialects upvote 'upvote' Less-common allophone of after , , or (the more-common alteration being the shifting of the earlier consonant to , , or , respectively, although // exist in free variation with //). Chicano very 'very' May be realized as instead.Epena Pedee 'mother' Word medial realization of ; nasal syllable allophone in free variation with a nasalized approximant Ewe 'Ewe' Contrasts with both and Fijian 'shoe' German. This source mentions only intervocalic . 'but' Intervocalic and pre-lateral allophone of in casual speech. See Standard German phonology Hopi 'five' Japanese / 'Kobe' Allophone of only in fast speech between vowels. See Japanese phonology Kabyle 'to cut' Kinyarwanda 'children' Korean / / 'later' Intervocalic allophone of before , , and . See Korean phonologyLuhya Wanga Dialect 'title for a king' Mapos Buang 'prayer' Mapos Buang has both a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant as separate phonemes. The fricative is transcribed as , and the approximant as .Marwari / 'brother'Nepali / 'meeting'Allophone of . See Nepali phonology Portuguese European 'Saturday' Allophone of . See Portuguese phonology Ripuarian Colognian 'wine' Allophone of syllable-initial for some speakers; can be instead. See Colognian phonology Sardinian Logudorese(Italian) http://www.antoninurubattu.it/rubattu/grammatica-sarda-italiano-sardo.html 'pope' Intervocalic allophone of as well as word-initial when the preceding word ends with a vowel and there is no pause between the words. Turkish 'body' Allophone of before and after rounded vowels. See Turkish phonology Turkmen 'country' Venda'work party held by one who wants to have the land ploughed or cultivated'Contrasts with and Zapotec Tilquiapan Allophone of
Voiced bilabial approximant
The following list includes languages with variable pronunciations. Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Amharic 'flower' Allophone of medially between sonorants. Asturian 'swing' Allophone of Basque 'daughter' Allophone of Catalan Many dialects 'before' Approximant or fricative. Allophone of . Mainly found in betacist ( and merging) dialects (Northern, North-Western, Central Catalan and Central Valencian). See Catalan phonology 'advance' Cia-Cia / 'eight'Allophone of Dutch Southern 'cheek' Labiovelar in northern Dutch. Extremaduran 'goat' Approximant or fricative. Allophone of Galician 'down' Approximant or fricative. Allophone of . See Galician phonology Indonesian'laugh'Allophone of by some younger speakers. Japanese / 'me' Usually represented phonemically as . See Japanese phonology Katë Western 'wood' Corresponds to and in other dialects. Kyrgyz'yes'Allophone of medially between vowels. Limburgish 'to want' The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. Lombard 'he was going away' Regular pronunciation of when intervocalic. Used also as an allophone for other positions.Mapos Buang 'kind of yam' Mapos Buang has both a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant as separate phonemes. The fricative is transcribed as , and the approximant as . Occitan Gascon 'then' Allophone of Ripuarian Kerkrade 'smoke' Weakly rounded; contrasts with . See Kerkrade dialect phonology Spanish 'lava' Ranges from close fricative to approximant.Phonetic studies such as have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are not limited to regular fricative articulations, but range from articulations that involve a near complete oral closure to articulations involving a degree of aperture quite close to vocalization Allophone of . See Spanish phonology Swedish Central Standard 'Saudi Arabia' Allophone of in casual speech. See Swedish phonology Ukrainian 'she' An approximant; the most common prevocalic realization of . Can vary with labiodental . See Ukrainian phonology
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links