Voiced bilabial implosive

"Bilabial implosive" redirects here. For the voiceless consonant, see Voiceless bilabial implosive.

A voiced bilabial implosive is a type of consonant used in some spoken languages. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɓ⟩. The X-SAMPA letter for this sound is b_<.

Voiced bilabial implosive
ɓ
IPA Number	160
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɓ
Unicode (hex)	U+0253
X-SAMPA	b_<
Braille
Image

Features

Features of the voiced bilabial implosive:

• The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is stop, or plosive. This means that this sound is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. (The term plosive contrasts with nasal stops, where the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.)
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is bilabial. This means that this sound is produced with both lips.
• The phonation is voiced. This means that the vocal cords vibrate while the sound is being pronounced.
• It is an oral consonant. This means that air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• This sound is not produced with air flowing over the tongue. So, the central–lateral dichotomy is not suitable.
• The airstream mechanism is implosive (also called glottalic ingressive). This means that this sound is produced by pushing the glottis downward. This pulls air inward. The glottis is not completely closed, but a pulmonic airstream is allowed to escape through it, which makes the sound.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ega[1]		[ɓá]		'send away'
English	Southern American[2]	boy	[ɓɔɪ̯]	'boy'	This is one way /b/ can be pronounced at the start of a word.[2] See English phonology
Fula[3]		fulɓe 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤩𞤫	[fulɓe]	'Fulbe person' (g.)
Goemai		ḅas	[ɓas]	'to fetch'
Hausa		ɓaɓewa	[ɓaɓɛua]	'quarreling'
Jamaican Patois[4]		beat	[ɓiːt]	'beat'	Allophone of /b/ at the beginning of prominent syllables.
Kalabari[5]		ḅá	[ɓá]	'kill'
Khmer		បារាំង / barăng	[ɓaːraŋ]	noun: 'France' adjective: 'French'	See Khmer phonology
Latundê[6]		[ˌɓa:ˈnãn]		'(they) are two'	One of the ways /p/ can be pronounced.[6]
Southern Nambikwara[7]		[ɓa̰h]		'ask excuse'	One of the ways /p/ can be pronounced.[7]
Mayan	Yucatec	balam	[ɓalam]	'jaguar'
Mono[8]		‘balœ	[ɓálə́]	'at'
Paumarí[9]	'bo'da	[ɓoɗa]	'old'
Seereer-Siin[10]		ɓood	[ɓoːd]	'to crawl'	Contrasts phonemically with the voiceless bilabial implosive. (When two sounds contrast, it means that the two sounds are different in that language, and changing the sound can change what the word means.)
Saraiki[11]		ٻال	[ɓɑː.l]	'child'
Sindhi		ٻر	[ɓaˑrʊ]
Tera[12]		ɓala	[ɓala]	'to talk'	Contrasts phonemically with palatalized implosive, /ɓʲ/
Tukang Besi		[aɓa]		'previous'
Vietnamese[13]		bạn	[ɓan̪˧ˀ˨ʔ]	'you'	See Vietnamese phonology
Zulu		ubaba	[úˈɓàːɓá]	'my father'

Related pages

• Voiceless bilabial implosive
• B̤ē