phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

, the voiced labiodental flap is a speech sound found primarily in languages of

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

, such as Kera and Mangbetu. It has also been reported in the Austronesian language Sika. It is one of the few non- rhotic flaps. The sound begins with the lower lip placed behind the upper teeth. The lower lip is then flipped outward, striking the upper teeth in passing.

Symbol

The symbol in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

that represents this sound is , which resembles Cyrillic

izhitsa Izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ; italics: ; OCS: ѷжица, Russian: ижица, Ukrainian: іжиця) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet and several later alphabets, usually the last in the row. It originates from the Greek letter upsilon (Y, υ) ...

, , but is composed of a V and the hook of the flap . In 2005, the

International Phonetic Association The International Phonetic Association (IPA; , API) is an organization that promotes the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. The IPA's major contribution to phonetics is the International Phoneti ...

, responding to Kenneth Olson's request for its adoption, voted to include a symbol for this sound, and selected a ''v with a right hook'', that is, a combination of + . As of version 5.1.0, the

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

character set encodes this character at U+2C71 (ⱱ). In earlier literature, it is often transcribed by a ''v'' modified by the

extra-short The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses a breve to indicate a speech sound (usually a vowel) with extra-short Vowel length, duration. That is, is a very short vowel with the quality of . An example from English is the short schwa of the ...

diacritic, , following a 1989 recommendation of the International Phonetic Association. Another historic symbol for this sound was v with curl , which had been employed in articles from the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

, by

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...

, and others.

Features

Features of the voiced labiodental flap: * Its

manner of articulation articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators ( speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. One parameter of manner is ''stricture,'' that is, h ...

is flap, which normally means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact. In this case, being a non- rhotic consonant, the flap is made with the lower lip. * Its

place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...

is dental, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth.

Occurrence

The labiodental flap is found primarily in Central Africa, in as many as a few hundred languages found in the Chadic family (Margi, Tera), Ubangian (Ngbaka, Ma'bo, Sera), Mbum (e.g. Kare),

Central Sudanic Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nige ...

(Mangbetu, Kresh), and Bantoid (Ngwe, some Shona dialects). It is extremely rare outside Africa, though it has been reported from Sika in

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

. The bilabial flap is a variant of the labiodental flap in several languages, including Mono. This sound involves striking the upper lip rather than the upper teeth. The two sounds are not known to contrast in any language; the term labial flap can be used as a broader description encompassing both sounds. In Sika, the flap is heard in careful pronunciation, but it may also be realized as a voiced labiodental stop, , or an affricate. It contrasts with both a bilabial and a labiodental fricative:

Notes

References

* * * * * * *

External links

* * Olson and Hajek, 2001
'The Geographic and Genetic Distribution of the Labial Flap'

A Crosslinguistic Lexicon of the Labial Flap
(has video & sound files)

(has information on the labiodental flap) {{IPA navigation Tap and flap consonants Labiodental consonants Phonetic transcription symbols Pulmonic consonants