Voiced labial–velar plosive

The voiced labial–velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is a [ɡ] and [b] pronounced simultaneously and is considered a double articulation.^[1] To make this sound, one can say go but with the lips closed as if one were saying Bo; the lips are to be released at the same time as or a fraction of a second after the g of go is pronounced. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɡ͡b⟩. Its voiceless counterpart is voiceless labial–velar plosive, [k͡p].

Voiced labial–velar plosive
ɡ͡b
IPA Number	110 (102)
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɡ​͡​b
Unicode (hex)	U+0261 U+0361 U+0062

The voiced labial–velar plosive is commonly found in Niger-Congo languages, e.g. in Igbo (Volta-Congo) in the name [iɡ͡boː] itself; or in Bété (Atlantic-Congo), e.g. in the surname of Laurent Gbagbo [ɡ͡baɡ͡bo], former president of Ivory Coast.

Features

Features of the voiced labial–velar 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 plosive.
• Its place of articulation is labial–velar, which means it is simultaneously articulated with the lips and with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum). The dorsal closure is made and released slightly before the labial closure, but they overlap for most of their duration.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dyula	gba	[ɡ͡bɑ]	'bench'
Ega[2]	[ɡ͡bá]		'finish'
Ewe	Èʋegbe	[èβeɡ͡be]	'Ewe language'
Igbo	Igbo	[iɡ͡boː]	'Igbo'
Kalabari[3]	ágbá	[áɡ͡bá]	'paint'
Kissi	gbɛŋgbo	[ɡ͡bɛŋɡ͡bɔ]	'stool'
Mono (Ubangian)[4]	gba	[ɡ͡ba]	'moisten'
Mundang[5]	gbajole / ࢥَجٝلٜ	[ɡ͡baɟole]	'to help'
Nigerian Pidgin[6]	gbedu	[ɡ͡bɛdu]	'beats' (of music)	Phonemic. Found in substrate words and later loanwords from native Nigerian languages. See Languages of Nigeria.
Temne[7]	kʌgbara	[kʌɡ͡bara]	'coconut'
Tyap	a̠mgba̠m	[əmɡ͡bəm]	'all'
Volow[8]	nleq̄evēn	[n.lɛᵑᵐɡ͡bʷɛβɪn]	'woman'	with labiovelar release
Yoruba	gbogbo	[ɡ͡boɡ͡bo]	'all'

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Doubly articulated consonant
• Co-articulated consonant

Notes

1. Catford & Esling 2006, p. 438 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCatfordEsling2006 (help):

   … the commonest double articulations consist of the simultaneous articulation of stops at two locations, most frequently labial-velar [kp] [gb], written [k͡p] [ɡ͡b] when the coarticulation has to be made explicit in transcription. This particular type of double articulation is often called ‘labiovelar,’ a term which must be avoided in a strictly systematic phonetic taxonomy in which the first half of such a compound term refers to the lower articulator.

2. Connell, Ahoua & Gibbon (2002:100)
3. Harry (2003:113)
4. Olson (2004:233); association with Niger-Congo uncertain.
5. Priest, Lorna A.; Hosken, Martin (12 August 2010). Proposal to add Arabic script characters for African and Asian languages (PDF). (Archive)
6. Faraclas (1996), pp. 248–249. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFFaraclas1996 (help)
7. Ladefoged (1964)
8. François (2005:445)

References

• Catford, J.C.; Esling, John (2006). "Articulatory phonetics". In Brown, Keith (ed.). Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (2 ed.). Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 425–442. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00002-X.
• Connell, Bruce; Ahoua, Firmin; Gibbon, Dafydd (2002), "Ega", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 32 (1): 99–104, doi:10.1017/S002510030200018X
• François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages", Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.395.4359, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034, S2CID 131668754
• Harry, Otelemate (2003), "Kalaḅarị-Ịjo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 113–120, doi:10.1017/S002510030300121X
• Kropp Dakubu, M. E. (1987), The Dangme Language: An Introductory Survey, London: Macmillan
• Ladefoged, Peter (1964), A phonetic study of West African languages, Cambridge University Press
• Olson, Kenneth S. (2004), "Mono" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 233–238, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001744

External links

• List of languages with [ɡb] on PHOIBLE