Labial–velar consonant

Labial–velar consonants are doubly articulated at the velum and the lips, such as [k͡p]. They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to labialized velars, such as [kʷ] and the approximant [w].

Doubly articulated labial-velars

Truly doubly articulated labial–velars occur as stops and nasals in the majority of languages in 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, Chadic and Central Sudanic families), and are relatively common in the eastern end of New Guinea. They include [k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m]. 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 ⟨k͡p⟩ and ⟨ɡ͡b⟩ is not arbitrary but motivated by the phonetic details of the sounds.

The Yélî Dnye language of Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea, has both labial–velars and labial–alveolar consonants. Labial–velar stops and nasals also occur in Vietnamese but only word-finally.

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
k͡p	voiceless labial–velar stop	Logba	ò-kpàyɔ̀	[ò-k͡pàjɔ̀]	'God'
ɡ͡b	voiced labial–velar stop	Ewe	Ewegbe	[ɛβɛɡ͡be]	'the Ewe language'
ŋ͡m	labial–velar nasal	Vietnamese	cung	[kuŋ͡m]	'sector'

These sounds are clearly single consonants rather than consonant clusters. For example, Eggon contrasts /bɡ/, /ɡb/, and /ɡ͡b/. The following possibilities are possible if tone is ignored:

Single consonant		Two-consonant sequence
pom	to pound	kba	to dig
abu	a dog	bɡa	to beat, to kill
aku	a room	ak͡pki	a stomach
ɡom	to break	ɡ͡bɡa	to grind
k͡pu	to die	kpu	to kneel
ɡ͡bu	to arrive	ɡba	to divide

Similar phonemes

Doubly articulated labial-velars with approximant release

Some languages, especially in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu, combine the labial–velar consonants with a labial–velar approximant release: [k͡pʷ], [ŋ͡mʷ]. The extinct language Volow had a prenasalised labial-velar stop with approximant release [ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡bʷ].^[1]

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
k͡pʷ	voiceless labial–velar stop with approximant release	Dorig	rqa	[rk͡pʷa][2]	'woman'
ŋ͡mʷ	labial–velar nasal with approximant release	Mwesen	ēm̄	[ɪŋ͡mʷ]	'house'
ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡bʷ	prenasalized voiced labial–velar stop with approximant release	Volow	n-leq̄evēn	[nlɛᵑᵐɡ͡bʷɛβɪn]	'woman'

Other variants

Labial–velar stops also occur as ejective [k͡pʼ] and implosive [ɠ͡ɓ] (often written ⟨ɡ͡ɓ⟩); Floyd (1981) reports a voiceless implosive [ƙ͜ƥ] from Igbo. There may be labial–velar approximants in languages like Japanese. Bilabial clicks are sometimes considered to be labial–velar consonants as well, but the velar articulation is part of the airstream mechanism.

Notation

For transcribing these sounds ligatures can occasionally be seen instead of digraphs with a tie bar:

Note that, although such symbols are readily understood, they are not sanctioned by the IPA, and have no Unicode values. They can, however, be specified as the way an OpenType font displays gb and kp digraphs.

See also

• Place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

Notes

1. See p.116 of: François, Alexandre (2005), "A typological overview of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu", Linguistic Typology, 9 (1): 115–146, doi:10.1515/lity.2005.9.1.115.
2. See pp.429-430 of: François, Alexandre (2010), "Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment", Phonology, 27 (3): 393–434, doi:10.1017/s0952675710000205

References

• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.