Voiced bilabial trill

Voiced bilabial trill
Voiced bilabial trill
ʙ
IPA number	121
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʙ
Unicode (hex)	U+0299
X-SAMPA	B\
Braille
Image

A voiced bilabial trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is ⟨ʙ⟩, a small capital letter b.

Features

Features of a voiced bilabial trill:

* Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by directing air over an articulator so that it vibrates.

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

* Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

* It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.

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

* Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most speech sounds.

Occurrence

Plain

Slowed-down recording of the bilabial trill

A bilabial trill held for 3 seconds, with the recording slowed down.

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Occurrences of [ʙ] in various languages
Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Damin		pr2уuu	[ʙ\ʙjuː]	'branch'	Can either be single pr [ʙ] or doubled pr2 [ʙ\ʙ] depending on the word
Dongo		bbo̍	[ʙō]	'two'	Phonemic. Contrasts with /ʙ̥/.^[1]
Kilmeri^[2]		ppipe	[ʙipɛ]	'blossom'
Komi-Permyak^[3]		[ʙuɲɡaɡ]		'dung beetle'	Generally paralinguistic. Apart from interjections, [ʙuɲɡaɡ] is the only lexeme this sound is found in.
Kwomtari^[4]		[ʙɨt]		'to hit'
Lizu^[5]^[6]		[tʙ̩˥˧]		'bean'	Syllabic; allophone of /u/ after initial /pʰ, p, b, tʰ, t, d/.^[5]
Medumba^{[citation needed]}		[mʙʉ́]		'dog'
Min Chinese	Lei	牛	[ʙu¹¹]	'ox' or 'cow'	Appearing in elderly accents. A variant of /b/ before /u/. Similar words include "梅" (plum) and "肥" (fat).^[7]
Ngwe	Lebang dialect^{[citation needed]}	[àʙɨ́]		'ash'
Pirahã		kaoáíbogi	[kàò̯áí̯ʙòˈɡì]	'evil spirit'	Allophone of /b/ before /o/
Pumi^[6]		[pʙ̩˥]^[6]		'to dig'	Syllabic; allophone of /ə/ after /pʰ, p, b, tʰ, t, d/.
Sko^[4]		[mbʙul]		'pig'

Prenasalized

Occurrences of [ᵐʙ] in various languages
Language	Word	Meaning	Notes
Ahamb^[8]	[nãᵐʙwas]	'pig'	Phonemic; contrasts between /ᵐʙ/ and /ʙ̥/.
Kele^[9]^[10]	[ᵐʙulim]	'face'	May occur in other languages of the Admiralty Islands.
Kilmeri^[4]	[kəᵐʙul]	'rain'
Titan^[9]^[10]	[ᵐʙutukei]	'wooden plate'
Unua^[11]	[ᵐʙue]	'pig'

Prestopped trills and stops with trill release

These are treated as single segments. For stop–trill consonant clusters, see the § Plain table.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Namuyi^[12]	tbĭh	[t͡ʙ̩˨]^[12]	'to slaughter'	[ʙ] is classified as an allophone of /u/ following /p, b, t, d/ in the phonemic analysis of Huáng (1992:673–674), and Yǐn (2016).^[13] Phonemic according to Pavlík (2017), occurring before /u/ or as a syllabic consonant; the trill components may be voiceless [ʙ̥] when preceded by voiceless plosives. No bilabial trills are present in the phonemic analysis of Nishida (2013).
	dbù	[d͡ʙu˥˨]^[12]	'wild'
	pbĭh	[p͡ʙ̩]^[12]	'to deliver'
	Bbuda	[b͡ʙuda]^[12]	surname
Sangtam^[14]	[kʰi˥t̪͡ʙa˧]		'hip joint'	Word-medial realization of phonemic /t̪͡ʙ̥/, contrasts with aspirated /t̪͡ʙ̥ʰ/.^[14]^[15]

Phonology

In many of the languages in which the bilabial trill occurs, it occurs only as part of a prenasalized bilabial stop with trilled release, [mbʙ]. That developed historically from a prenasalized stop before a relatively high back vowel like [mbu]. In such instances, the sounds are usually still limited to the environment of a following [u]. However, the trills in Mangbetu may precede any vowel^[16] and are sometimes preceded by only a nasal.

Notes

↑ Pasch, Helma (1986). Die Mba-Sprachen: Die Nominalklassensysteme und die genetische Gliederung einer Gruppe von Ubangi-Sprachen. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (SUGIA) (in German). Vol. Suplement 6. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. p. 359. ISSN 0720-0986.
↑ Gerstner-Link, Claudia (2018). A Grammar of Kilmeri (PDF). Vol. 654. Boston: De Gruyter, Inc. pp. 34, 86. ISBN 978-1-5015-1537-8. ISSN 1448-8310. LCCN 2018954903. Retrieved 22 May 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
↑ Wichmann, Yrjö; Uotila, T. E. (1942). Syrjänischer Wortschatz nebst Hauptzügen der Formenlehre. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.
1 2 3 Foley, William A. (2017). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. doi:10.1515/9783110295252-003. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
1 2 Chirkova & Chen (2013:78)
1 2 3 Chirkova, Katia (2012). Tang, Chih-Chen Jane (ed.). "The Qiangic Subgroup from an Areal Perspective: A Case Study of Languages of Muli". Languages and Linguistics. 13 (1). Taipei: Academia Sinica: 133–170. Retrieved 22 May 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
↑ 梁源; 陈柏桦 (2003). "雷话b-声母的变异" [Variation of the Initial *b-* in Lei Chinese]. 中国语文 [Studies of the Chinese Language] (in Chinese (China)) (004): 341–348.
↑ Rangelov, Tihomir (2019), The bilabial trills of Ahamb (Vanuatu): acoustic and articulatory properties, University of Waikato
1 2 Ladefoged (2005:165)
1 2 Bowern, Claire (2012). Sivisa Titan. University of Hawai'i Press.
↑ Dimock (2005:19)
1 2 3 4 5 Pavlík (2017)
↑ Pavlík (2017:32)
1 2 Coupe, Alexander (2016), "Prestopped bilabial trills in Sangtam", Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, 10-14 August 2015.
↑ Coupe, Alexander (2020), "Northern Sangtam phonetics, phonology and word list" (PDF), Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 43 (1): 148–189, doi:10.1075/ltba.19014.cou
↑ See, e.g., among the numerous data of Robert G. McKee's "Concerning Meegye and Mangbetu’s bilabial trills," in Advances in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics: Proceedings of the 8th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, University of Hamburg, August 22–25, 2001, Doris L. Payne & Mechthild Reh (eds.), 181–189 (2007, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne).

References

Capell, Arthur; Layard, John (1980), "Materials in Atchin, Malekula: Grammar, Vocabulary and Texts" (PDF), Pacific Linguistics (20), Canberra, ACT: The Australian National University, doi:10.15144/PL-D20, hdl:1885/144536, ISBN 0-85883-231-3{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Lizu (Illustrations of the IPA)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 75–86, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000242
Dimock, Laura (2005). "The Bilabial Trill in Unua" (PDF). Wellington Working Papers in Linguistics. 17: 17–33. ISSN 1170-1978.
Crowley, Terry (2006). Lynch, John (ed.). Naman: a vanishing language of Malakula (Vanuatu). Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-565-7.
Huáng, Bùfán, ed. (1992), 藏緬語族語言詞彙 [Tibeto-Burman language vocabulary] (in Chinese), Beijing: Minzu University Press
Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.). Blackwell.
Nishida, Fuminobu (2013). "Phonetics and Phonology of Dzolo Dialect of Namuyi". Arutesu Riberaresu / Artes Liberales. 92: 21–54. doi:10.15113/00013130.
Pavlík, Štěpán (2017). The Description of Namuzi Language (Ph.D. thesis). Charles University. hdl:20.500.11956/95965.
Rangelov, Tihomir; Walworth, Mary; Barbour, Julie (2023). "A multifaceted approach to understanding unexpected sound change: The bilabial trills of Vanuatu's Malekula Island". Diachronica. doi:10.1075/dia.21051.ran. ISSN 0176-4225. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
Sedláček, Kamil (1967), "The Law of Phonetic Change in Initial Clusters in Common Sino-Tibetan", Monumenta Serica, 26: 6–34, doi:10.1080/02549948.1967.11744953, JSTOR 40725837
Yǐn, Wèibīn (2016), 納木茲語語法標註文本 [Grammar of Namuzi with Annotated Texts] (in Chinese), Beijing: Social Science Literature Press

External links

[Pasch-1] Pasch, Helma (1986). Die Mba-Sprachen: Die Nominalklassensysteme und die genetische Gliederung einer Gruppe von Ubangi-Sprachen. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (SUGIA) (in German). Vol. Suplement 6. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. p. 359. ISSN 0720-0986.

[2] Gerstner-Link, Claudia (2018). A Grammar of Kilmeri (PDF). Vol. 654. Boston: De Gruyter, Inc. pp. 34, 86. ISBN 978-1-5015-1537-8. ISSN 1448-8310. LCCN 2018954903. Retrieved 22 May 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[3] Wichmann, Yrjö; Uotila, T. E. (1942). Syrjänischer Wortschatz nebst Hauptzügen der Formenlehre. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.

[Foley-Sepik-4] 1 2 3 Foley, William A. (2017). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. doi:10.1515/9783110295252-003. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

[chir78-5] 1 2 Chirkova & Chen (2013:78)

[Chirkova2012-6] 1 2 3 Chirkova, Katia (2012). Tang, Chih-Chen Jane (ed.). "The Qiangic Subgroup from an Areal Perspective: A Case Study of Languages of Muli". Languages and Linguistics. 13 (1). Taipei: Academia Sinica: 133–170. Retrieved 22 May 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[7] 梁源; 陈柏桦 (2003). "雷话b-声母的变异" [Variation of the Initial *b-* in Lei Chinese]. 中国语文 [Studies of the Chinese Language] (in Chinese (China)) (004): 341–348.

[ahamb-8] Rangelov, Tihomir (2019), The bilabial trills of Ahamb (Vanuatu): acoustic and articulatory properties, University of Waikato

[Ladefoged_2005_165-9] 1 2 Ladefoged (2005:165)

[Bowern-titan-10] 1 2 Bowern, Claire (2012). Sivisa Titan. University of Hawai'i Press.

[11] Dimock (2005:19)

[palvik-12] 1 2 3 4 5 Pavlík (2017)

[13] Pavlík (2017:32)

[Coupe-14] 1 2 Coupe, Alexander (2016), "Prestopped bilabial trills in Sangtam", Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, 10-14 August 2015.

[15] Coupe, Alexander (2020), "Northern Sangtam phonetics, phonology and word list" (PDF), Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 43 (1): 148–189, doi:10.1075/ltba.19014.cou

[16] See, e.g., among the numerous data of Robert G. McKee's "Concerning Meegye and Mangbetu’s bilabial trills," in Advances in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics: Proceedings of the 8th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, University of Hamburg, August 22–25, 2001, Doris L. Payne & Mechthild Reh (eds.), 181–189 (2007, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne).

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