Bilabial approximant

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IPA – number	127 + 430
IPA – text	β̞
IPA – image
Entity	β̞
X-SAMPA	B_o
Kirshenbaum	B<apr>
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiced bilabial approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is β̞, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B_o. The IPA symbol is created by adding a lowering diacritic to the symbol for the voiced bilabial fricative.

[edit] Features

Features of the voiced bilabial approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by bringing one articulator close to another but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.
• Its place of articulation is bilabial which means it is articulated with both lips.
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• 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] Found in

In Spanish, a bilabial approximant, or a sound between an approximant and a fricative, is found as an allophone of /b/ between vowels, as in vivo [biβ̞o] 'living(adj.), (I) live'.

In medieval Spanish, the sound written v was different from the one written b in the pre-classic period, but sometime during the 14th and 15th centuries /v/ merged with /b/ in the standard language. There is no general agreement on the phonetic nature of the old phoneme /v/; some linguists think that it was labiodental (see Dámaso Alonso), while others (such as Menéndez Pidal) think that the pre-classic "v" was a bilabial fricative, [β]. No matter its actual realization, most studies agree that it was not distinguished from /b/ after the 16th century except in a few isolated dialects, where it took a little longer for the merger to occur. In present-day Spanish, the merger is complete in all dialects. This commonly leads to misspellings in Spanish, causing people to often spell the "v" as "b" and vice-versa; for example, people might sometimes spell bajar and derivada as "vajar" and "deribada". A common workaround is to spell the "b" as B grande (big B), and the "v" as B chica (small B), since the lowercase b is taller than the lowercase v. Some educated speakers, especially in America (where the influence of English is strong), still try to distinguish phonemes /v/ and /b/ on spelling bases, but the Spanish Real Academia no longer supports such distinction, seeing it as foreign to modern Spanish.

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal 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  β̞ ʋ ð̞ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps ѵ̟ ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ 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.