View source for Labial–velar consonant

{{Short description|Consonant that is doubly articulated at the soft palate and the lips}}
{{distinguish|Labialized velar consonant}}
{{IPA notice}}
'''Labial–velar consonants''' are [[Doubly articulated consonant|doubly articulated]] at the [[Soft palate|velum]] and the [[lip]]s, such as {{IPA|[k͡p]}}. They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to [[labialization|labialized]] velars, such as the [[stop consonant]] {{IPA|[kʷ]}} and the [[approximant]] {{IPA|[w]}}.

Labial-velars are often written as [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]]. In the [[Kâte language]], however, {{IPA|/k͡p/}} is written Q q, and {{IPA|/ɡ͡b/}} as [[Ɋ]] ɋ.

Globally, these types of consonants are quite rare, only existing in two regions: West and Central Africa on the one hand, Eastern New Guinea<ref>{{Cite web 
|last=Maddieson
|first=Ian
|author-link=Ian Maddieson
|title=WALS Online – Chapter Presence of Uncommon Consonants |url=https://wals.info/chapter/19 |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=wals.info}}</ref> and northern Vanuatu<ref>See p.31 of {{cite journal |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-link=Alexandre François (linguist)|year=2016 |title= The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu |volume = 47 |pages = 25–60 |journal = Faits de Langues |doi=10.1163/19589514-047-01-900000003 |s2cid=171459404 |url= http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2016_History-personal-pronouns_north-Vanuatu_published.pdf |ref=pronouns }}</ref> on the other. There are 2 other isolated cases, allophonically in Vietnamese and in the Adu dialect of Nuosu (Yi).

==Plain labial-velar stops==
Truly doubly articulated labial-velars include the [[stop consonant|stop]]s {{IPA|[k͡p, ɡ͡b]}}, the [[nasal consonant|nasal]] {{IPA|[ŋ͡m]}}, and the [[Implosive consonant|implosive]] {{IPA|[ɠ͜ɓ]}}. To pronounce them, one must attempt to say the velar consonants but then close their lips for the bilabial component, and then release the lips. While 90% of the occlusion overlaps, the onset of the velar occurs slightly before that of the labial, and the release of the labial occurs slightly after that of the velar so the preceding vowel sounds as if it were followed by a velar, and the following vowel sounds as if it were preceded by a labial. The order of the letters in {{angbr IPA|k͡p}} and {{angbr IPA|ɡ͡b}} is therefore not arbitrary but motivated by the phonetic details of the sounds.

Phonemic labial–velars occur in the majority of languages in [[West Africa|West]] and [[Central Africa]] (for example in the name of [[Laurent Gbagbo]], former president of [[Ivory Coast]]; they are found in many [[Niger–Congo languages]] as well as in the [[Ubangian languages|Ubangian]], [[Chadic languages|Chadic]] and [[Central Sudanic languages|Central Sudanic]] families), and are relatively common in the eastern end of [[New Guinea]]. The rare implosive is only found in [[Lese language|Lese]], a [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] language of the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Didier Demolin, Bernard Teston |date=September 1997 |title=Phonetic characteristics of double articulations in some Mangbutu-Efe languages |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00239376/file/662.pdf |journal=International Speech Communication Association |pages=803–806}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Güldemann |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uUeHDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22lese%22+language+%22labial-uvular%22+plosive&pg=PT635 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of Africa |date=2018-09-10 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-042175-0 |language=en}}</ref> In Southeast Asia, they occur in the Adu dialect of [[Nuosu language|Nuosu (Yi)]], which aside from its isolated location, is unusual in having a relatively large inventory of labial-velar consonants, including the rare [[aspirated consonant|aspirated version]]: {{IPA|/k͡pʰ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ᵑɡ͡b, ŋ͡m/}}.<ref>{{cite journal|first=John|last=Hajek|author-link=John Hajek|title=On doubly articulated labial-velar stops and nasals in Tibeto-Burman|journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area|volume=29|issue=2|pages=127–130|year=2006}}</ref>

Labial–velar stops can also occur as an [[ejective consonant|ejective]] {{IPA|[k͡pʼ]}} (unattested) and a [[Voiceless labial–velar implosive|voiceless implosive]] {{IPA|[ƙ͜ƥ]}}. Floyd (1981) and Clark (1990) report that voiced and voiceless implosives {{IPA|/ɠ͡ɓ, ƙ͜ƥ/}} occur in Central Igbo. As stated above, the voiced implosive has been confirmed in Lese.

The [[Yele language]] of [[Rossel Island]], [[Papua New Guinea]], has both labial–velars and [[labial–coronal consonant|labial–alveolar consonant]]s. Labial–velar stops and nasals also occur in [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] but only word-finally.

{| class=wikitable
|-
! rowspan="2" | IPA
! rowspan="2" | Description
! colspan="4" | Example
|-
! Language
! Orthography
! IPA
! Meaning
|-
! {{IPA|k͡p}}
| [[voiceless labial–velar stop]]
| [[Logba language|Logba]]
| ò-'''kp'''àyɔ̀
| {{IPA|[ò'''k͡p'''àjɔ̀]}}
| 'God'
|-
! {{IPA|ɡ͡b}}
| [[voiced labial–velar stop]]
| [[Ewe language|Ewe]]
| Èʋe'''gb'''e
| {{IPA|[èβe'''ɡ͡b'''e]}}
| 'the Ewe language'
|-
!ɠ̊͜ɓ̥
|[[voiceless labial–velar implosive]]
|[[Igbo language|Central Igbo]]
|'''''kp'''ọ́''
|{{IPA|[ɠ̊͜ɓ̥ɔ́]}}
|'call'
|-
!{{IPA|ɠ͡ɓ}}
|[[voiced labial–velar implosive]]
|[[Lese language|Lese]]
| colspan="2" |{{IPA|[e'''ɠ͡ɓ'''e]}}
|'in'
|-
! {{IPA|ŋ͡m}}
| [[labial-velar nasal]]
| [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
| cu'''ng'''
| {{IPA|[ku'''ŋ͡m''']}}
| 'sector'
|-
! {{IPA|ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b}}
| [[Prenasalization|prenasalized]] [[voiced labial–velar stop]]
| [[Nen language (Papuan)|Nen]]<ref name="Nen">See p.332 of: {{Cite journal| doi = 10.1017/S0025100315000365| issn = 1475-3502| volume = 46| issue = 3| pages = 331–349| last1 = Evans| first1 = Nicholas|author-link1 =Nicholas Evans (linguist)| last2 = Miller| first2 = Julia Colleen| title = Nen| journal = Journal of the International Phonetic Association| date = 2016| doi-access = free}}.</ref>
| dé'''nḡ'''
| {{IPA|[dɪ'''ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b''']}}
| 'old-style bamboo pipe or container'
|}

These sounds are clearly single consonants rather than [[consonant cluster]]s. For example, [[Eggon language|Eggon]] contrasts {{IPA|/bɡ/}}, {{IPA|/ɡb/}}, and {{IPA|/ɡ͡b/}}. The following possibilities are possible if tone is ignored:

{| class=wikitable
!colspan=2|Single consonant!!colspan=2|Two-consonant sequence
|-
|{{IPA|pom}}||''to pound'' ||{{IPA|kba}}||''to dig''
|-
|{{IPA|abu}}||''a dog'' ||{{IPA|bɡa}}||''to beat, to kill''
|-
|{{IPA|aku}}||''a room'' ||{{IPA|ak͡pki}}||''a stomach''
|-
|{{IPA|ɡom}}||''to break'' ||{{IPA|ɡ͡bɡa}}||''to grind''
|-
|{{IPA|k͡pu}}||''to die'' ||{{IPA|kpu}}||''to kneel''
|-
|{{IPA|ɡ͡bu}}||''to arrive'' ||{{IPA|ɡba}}||''to divide''
|}

[[Allophone|Allophonic]] labial-velars are known from [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], where they are variants of the plain velar consonants {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ŋ/}}.

==Labialized labial-velars==
Some languages, especially in [[Papua New Guinea]] and in [[Vanuatu]], combine the labial–velar consonants with a [[Labialization|labial–velar approximant release]]: {{IPA|[k͡pʷ]}}, {{IPA|[ŋ͡mʷ]}}. The extinct language [[Volow language|Volow]] had a prenasalised labial-velar stop with [[labialization]] {{IPA|[ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡bʷ]}}.<ref name="LingTyp">See p.116 of: {{citation
|doi=10.1515/lity.2005.9.1.115
|last=François
|first=Alexandre
|year=2005
|title=A typological overview of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu
|journal=Linguistic Typology
|volume=9
|issue=1
|pages=115–146
|s2cid=55878308
|url = https://www.academia.edu/1330216
}}.</ref><ref>[https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Volow?lang=en&mode=pro&seeMore=true Presentation of the Volow language], by linguist [[Alexandre François|A. François]].</ref>

{| class=wikitable
|-
! rowspan="2" | IPA
! rowspan="2" | Description
! colspan="4" | Example
|-
! Language
! Orthography
! IPA
! Meaning
|-
! {{IPA|k͡pʷ}}
| [[voiceless labial–velar stop]] <small>with [[labialization]]</small>
| [[Dorig language|Dorig]]
| r'''q'''a
| {{IPA|[rk͡pʷa]}}<ref name="dorig">See pp.429-430 of: {{citation
|doi=10.1017/s0952675710000205
|last=François
|first=Alexandre
|year=2010
|title=Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment
|journal=Phonology
|volume=27
|issue=3
|pages=393–434
|s2cid=62628417
|url=https://www.academia.edu/848679
}}</ref>
| 'woman'
|-
! {{IPA|ŋ͡mʷ}}
| [[labial-velar nasal]] <small>with labialization</small>
| [[Mwesen language|Mwesen]]
| ē'''m̄'''
| {{IPA|[ɪŋ͡mʷ]}}
| 'house'
|-
! {{IPA|ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡bʷ}}
| [[prenasalized consonant|prenasalized]] [[voiced labial–velar stop]] <small>with labialization</small>
| [[Volow language|Volow]]
| n-le'''q̄'''evēn
| {{IPA|[nlɛᵑᵐɡ͡bʷɛβɪn]}}
| 'woman'
|}

==Velar labial clicks==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2024}}
[[Bilabial clicks]] are stops that involve closure at both the lips and the soft palate. Treatments often analyze the dorsal articulation as part of the [[airstream mechanism]], and so consider such stops to be labial. However, there may be a distinction between the velar labial clicks {{IPA|[k͡ʘ ɡ͡ʘ ŋ͡ʘ]}} and the uvular labial clicks {{IPA|[q͡ʘ ɢ͡ʘ ɴ͡ʘ]}}, which is not captured if they are described as simply labial.

==See also==

* [[Place of articulation]]
* [[List of phonetics topics]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{SOWL}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Labial-Velar Consonant}}
[[Category:Place of articulation]]
[[Category:Labial–velar consonants]]