Voiceless bilabial plosive

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IPA – number	101
IPA – text	p
IPA – image
Entity	p
X-SAMPA	p
Kirshenbaum	p
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is p, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. The voiceless bilabial plosive in English is spelled with 'p', as in pit or speed.

[p] is missing from about 10% of languages that have a [b]. (See voiced velar plosive for another such gap.) This is an areal feature of the "circum-Saharan zone" (Africa north of the equator, including the Arabian peninsula). It is not known how old this areal feature is, and whether it might be a recent phenomenon due to Arabic as a prestige language (Arabic lost its /p/ in prehistoric times), or whether Arabic was itself affected by a more ancient areal pattern. It is found in other areas as well; for example, in Europe, Proto-Celtic and Old Basque are both reconstructed as having [b] but no [p].

Nonetheless, the [p] sound is very common cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [p], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [p].

Contents 1 Features 2 Varieties of the voiceless bilabial plosive 3 Occurrence 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography

[edit] Features

Features of the voiceless bilabial plosive:

• Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
• Its place of articulation is bilabial which means it is articulated with both lips.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] Varieties of the voiceless bilabial plosive

IPA	X-SAMPA	Description
p	p	plain p
pʰ	p_h	aspirated p
pʲ	p' (or p_j)	palatalized p
pʷ	p_w	labialized p
p̚	p_}	unreleased p
p̌	p_v	voiced p
pʼ	p_>	ejective p

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan[1]		parallamps	[ˌpaɾəˈʎams]	'lightning conductor'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	爆炸/bàozhà	[pɑʊ˥˩ ʈʂa˥˩]	'to explode'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Mandarin
Czech		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'	See Czech phonology
Dutch[2]		plicht	[plɪxt]	'duty'	See Dutch phonology
English		pack	[pʰæk]	'pack'	See English phonology
French[3]		pomme	[pɔm]	'apple'	See French phonology
German		Pack	[pʰak]	'pile'	See German phonology
Greek		πόδι	[ˈpo̞ði]	'leg'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hindi		पाल	[pɑl]	'nurture'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		pápa	[paːpɒ]	'pope'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[4]		papà	[paˈpa]	'dad'	See Italian phonology
Japanese[5]		ポスト/posuto	[posɯto]	'mailbox'	See Japanese phonology
Norwegian		pappa	[pɑpːɑ]	'dad'	See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		ﭙﺎﻧﻴﺮ	[pɑˈnir]	'cheese'
Pirahã		pibaóí	[pìbàóí]	'otter'
Polish[6]		pas	[pas] (help·info)	'belt'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[7]		pai	[pai]	'father'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		pas	[pas]	'step'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[8]		плод	[plot] (help·info)	'fruit'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Spanish[9]		pensar	[pẽ̞n'saɾ]	'to think'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		apa	[ˈaːpʰa]	'ape'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		kap	[käp]	'pot'	See Turkish phonology

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45-47
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94-97
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39-87
• Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post-​alve​olar Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ p̪͡f Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.