Linguolabial consonant

Linguolabials or apicolabials are consonants articulated by placing the tongue tip or blade against the upper lip, which is drawn downward to meet the tongue. They represent one extreme of a coronal articulatory continuum which extends from linguolabial to sub-apical palatal places of articulation. Cross-linguistically, linguolabial consonants are very rare, though they do not represent a particularly exotic combination of articulatory configurations, unlike click consonants or ejectives. They are found in a cluster of languages in Vanuatu, as well as in Umotína, a recently extinct Bororoan language of Brazil, as well as extraphonotactic sounds in Coatlán-Loxicha Zapotec.

Sagittal section of linguolabial stop

The linguolabial consonants are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by adding the "seagull" diacritic to the corresponding alveolar consonant. They are sometimes seen with the letter for a bilabial consonant instead, but this usage is not recognized by the International Phonetic Association, and would imply that both lips are used.

IPA	Description	Example
IPA	Description	Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
n̼	linguolabial nasal	Tangoa		[n̼ata]	"eye"
	voiceless linguolabial plosive	Tangoa		[t̼et̼e]	"butterfly"
	voiced linguolabial plosive	Vao		[nan̼d̼ak]	"bow"
	voiceless linguolabial fricative	Big Nambas		['inɛθ̼]	"he is asthmatic"
	voiced linguolabial fricative	Tangoa		[ð̼atu]	"stone"
r̼	linguolabial trill	Attested extraphonotactically in Coatlán Zapotec ^[1]