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Voiced bilabial fricative

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨β⟩ in IPA

Summary

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨β⟩ in IPA

Field	Value
ipa symbol	β
ipa symbol2	ꞵ
ipa number	127
decimal	946
imagefile	IPA Unicode 0xA7B5.svg
x-sampa	B
braille	decimal
braille2	b

| x-sampa = B

A voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is either a Latin or Greek-style beta, .

This letter is also often used to represent a voiced bilabial approximant, though that is more precisely written with a lowering diacritic, that is . This sound may also be transcribed as an advanced labiodental approximant , in which case the diacritic is again frequently omitted, since no contrast is likely. It has been proposed that either a turned or reversed , among others, be used as a dedicated symbol for the bilabial approximant; however, despite occasional usage, none have gained general acceptance.

It is extremely rare for a language to make a phonemic contrast between a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant. The Mapos Buang language of New Guinea contains this contrast. Its bilabial approximant is analyzed as filling a phonological gap in the labiovelar series of the consonant system rather than the bilabial series. Proto-Germanic and Proto-Italic are reconstructed as having had a contrast between the voiced bilabial fricative and the voiced labial–velar approximant , albeit with being an allophone for another consonant in both cases. In Bashkir language, it is an intervocal allophone of , and it is contrastive with : балабыҙ , балауыҙ .

A bilabial fricative is diachronically unstable (likely to be considerably varied between dialects of a language that makes use of it) and is likely to shift to .

The sound is not the primary realization of any sound in English dialects except for Chicano English, but it can be produced by approximating the normal English between the lips; it can also sometimes occur as an allophone of after bilabial consonants.

Features

Features of a voiced bilabial fricative:

Occurrence

Voiced bilabial fricative

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Akei		'four'
Alekano	hanuva		'nothing'
Angor	fufung		'horn'
Bengali	Eastern dialects	ভিসা	]	'Visa'
Berta		'no'
Catalan	abans		'before'	Approximant or fricative. Allophone of . Mainly found in betacist ( and merging) dialects. See Catalan phonology
Chinese dialects	Fuzhou	初八
chĕ̤ báik		'eighth day of the month'
Suburban Shanghainese	碗盞
ve tse		'bowl'	Usually or in other Wu dialects
Comorian	upvendza		'to love'	Contrasts with both and
Coptic	Bohairic			'brick'
Sahidic
Dahalo		'to want'	Weak fricative or approximant. It is a common intervocalic allophone of , and may be simply a plosive instead.
English	Some dialects	upvote		'upvote'
Chicano	very		'very'	May be realized as instead.
Epena Pedee	náwe		'mother'	Word medial realization of , in free variation with a nasalized approximant
Ewe	Eʋe		'Ewe'	Contrasts with both and
Fijian	ivava		'shoe'
German	aber		'but'	Intervocalic and pre-lateral allophone of in casual speech. See Standard German phonology
Hopi	tsivot		'five'
Japanese	神戸/kōbe		'Kobe'	Allophone of only in fast speech between vowels. See Japanese phonology
Kabyle	bri		'to cut'
Kinyarwanda	abana		'children'
Korean	추후/chuhu/追後		'later'	Intervocalic allophone of before and . See Korean phonology
Luhya	Wanga Dialect	Nabongo		'title for a king'
Mapos Buang	venġévsën		'prayer'	Mapos Buang has both a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant as separate phonemes. The fricative is transcribed as , and the approximant as .
Marwari	ब़ीरौ		'brother'
Nepali	सभा		'meeting'	Allophone of /bʱ/. See Nepali phonology
Portuguese	European	sábado		'Saturday'
Ripuarian	Colognian	wing		'wine'
Sardinian	Logudorese	paba		'pope'
Turkish	vücut		'body'	Allophone of before and after rounded vowels. See Turkish phonology
Turkmen	watan		'country'
Venda	davha		'work party held by one who wants to have the land ploughed or cultivated'	Contrasts with /v/ and /w/
Zapotec	Tilquiapan

Bilabial approximant

Approximant

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Amharic	አበባ		'flower'	Allophone of medially between sonorants.
Asturian	abanicu		'swing'	Allophone of
Basque	alaba		'daughter'	Allophone of
Catalan	abans		'before'	Approximant or fricative. Allophone of . Mainly found in betacist ( and merging) dialects. See Catalan phonology
Cia-Cia	ᄫᅡᆯ루/walu	[β̞alu]	'eight'	Allophone of /β/
Dutch	Southern	wang		'cheek'
Indonesian	tawa	[taβ̞a]	'laugh'	Allophone of /w/ by some younger speakers.
Japanese	私/watashi		'me'	Usually represented phonemically as . See Japanese phonology
Katë	Western	dav		'wood'
Kyrgyz	ооба		'yes'	Allophone of /b/ medially between vowels.
Limburgish	wèlle		'to want'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lombard	el nava via		'he was going away'	Regular pronunciation of when intervocalic. Used also as an allophone for other positions.
Mapos Buang	wabeenġ		'kind of yam'	Mapos Buang has both a voiced bilabial fricative and a bilabial approximant as separate phonemes. The fricative is transcribed as {v}, and the approximant as {w}.
Occitan	Gascon	lavetz		'then'
Ripuarian	Kerkrade	sjwaam		'smoke'
Spanish	lava		'lava'	Ranges from close fricative to approximant.Phonetic studies such as have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are
Swedish	Central Standard	Saudiarabien		'Saudi arabia'
Ukrainian	вона		'she'	An approximant; the most common prevocalic realization of . Can vary with labiodental . See Ukrainian phonology

Notes

References

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References

Ladefoged, Peter. (1968). "A Phonetic Study of West African Languages: An Auditory-instrumental Survey".
Joyce Thambole Mogatse Mathangwane. (1996). "Phonetics and Phonology of Ikalanga: A Diachronic and Synchronic Study". University of California.
(2018). "Revisions to the extIPA chart". Journal of the International Phonetic Association.
(2010). "Central Buang‒English Dictionary". Summer Institute of Linguistics Papua New Guinea Branch.
Fulk, R.D.. (2018). "A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages". Benjamins.
Silvestri, Domenico. (1998). "The Indo-European languages". Taylor & Francis Group.
{{Harvcoltxt. Picard. 1987. Pope. 1966
{{Harvcoltxt. Wheeler. 2005
{{Harvcoltxt. Zhuqing. 2002
Yuen Ren Chao. (1928). "Hsien tai wu yü te yen chiu". Tsing Hua College Research Institute.
{{Harvcoltxt. Maddieson. Spajić. Sands. Ladefoged. 1993
{{Harvcoltxt. Ladefoged. 2005
{{Harvcoltxt. Krech et al.. 2009
Moosmüller, Sylvia. (2007). "Vowels in Standard Austrian German: An Acoustic-Phonetic and Phonological Analysis".
{{Harvcoltxt. Okada. 1999
{{Harvcoltxt. Cruz-Ferreira. 1995
{{Harvcoltxt. Mateus. d'Andrade. 2000
(Italian) http://www.antoninurubattu.it/rubattu/grammatica-sarda-italiano-sardo.html {{Webarchive. link. (2015-01-01)
{{Harvcoltxt. Göksel. Kerslake. 2005
(2010-12-13). "The Tshivenda–English Thalusamaipfi/Dictionary as a Product of South African Lexicographic Processes". Lexikos.
{{Harvcoltxt. Merrill. 2008
{{Harvcoltxt. Hayward. Hayward. 1999
{{Harvcoltxt. Hualde. 1991
Halfmann, Jakob. (2024). "A Grammatical Description of the Katë Language (Nuristani)". Universität zu Köln.
{{Harvcoltxt. Gussenhoven. Aarts. 1999
{{Harvcoltxt. Peters. 2006
{{Harvcoltxt. Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer. 1997
{{Harvcoltxt. Martínez-Celdrán. Fernández-Planas. Carrera-Sabaté. 2003
{{Harvcoltxt. Engstrand. 2004
{{Harvcoltxt. Žovtobrjux. Kulyk. 1965

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fricative-consonants bilabial-consonants approximant-consonants pulmonic-consonants voiced-oral-consonants

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