Voiceless bilabial stop

Voiceless bilabial stop
p
IPA Number	101
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	p
Unicode (hex)	U+0070
X-SAMPA	p
Braille

The voiceless bilabial stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨p⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. The voiceless bilabial stop in English is spelled with 'p', as in speed.

Features

Features of the voiceless bilabial stop:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a stop.
• Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Varieties

IPA	Description
p	plain p
pʰ	aspirated p
pʲ	palatalized p
pʷ	labialized p
p̚	p with no audible release
p̌	voiced p
p͈	tensed p
pʼ	ejective p

Occurrence

The stop [p] is missing from about 10% of languages that have a [b]. (See voiced velar stop for another such gap.) This is an areal feature of the "circum-Saharan zone" (Africa north of the equator, including the Arabian peninsula). It is not known how old this areal feature is, and whether it might be a recent phenomenon due to Arabic as a prestige language (Arabic lost its /p/ in prehistoric times), or whether Arabic was itself affected by a more ancient areal pattern. It is found in other areas as well; for example, in Europe, Proto-Celtic and Old Basque are both reconstructed as having [b] but no [p].

Nonetheless, the [p] sound is very common cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [p], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between the aspirated [pʰ] and the plain [p] (also transcribed as [p˭] in extensions to the IPA).

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		паӏо	<phonos file="Paʔʷa.ogg">[paːʔʷa]</phonos>	'hat'
Armenian	Eastern	պապիկ	<phonos file="pɑpik.ogg">[pɑpik]</phonos>	'grandpa'	Contrasts with aspirated form
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		pata	[paːta]	'face'
Basque		harrapatu	[(h)arapatu]	'to catch'
Bengali		পাল	[pal]	'sail'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	爆/pao	[paːu˧˧]	'to explode'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	爆炸/bàozhà	[pɑʊ˥˩ tʂa˥˩]	'to explode'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Catalan		parlar	[pərˈɫa]	'to speak'	See Catalan phonology
Czech		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	bog	[ˈpɔ̽ʊ̯ˀ]	'book'	Usually transcribed /b̥/ or /b/. Contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /pʰ/ or /p/. See Danish phonology
Dutch		plicht	[plɪxt]	'duty'	See Dutch phonology
English		pack	[pʰæk]	'pack'	See English phonology
Finnish		pappa	[pappa]	'grandpa'	See Finnish phonology
French		pomme	[pɔm]	'apple'	See French phonology
German		Pack	[pʰak]	'pile'	See German phonology
Greek		πόδι/pódi	[ˈpo̞ði]	'leg'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		પગ	[pəɡ]	'foot'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		פּקיד	[pakid]	'clerk'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		पल / پرچم	[pəl]	'moment'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		pápa	[ˈpaːpɒ]	'pope'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		papà	[paˈpa]	'dad'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		ポスト/posuto	[posɯto]	'mailbox'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		пэ	<phonos file="Пэ-noise.ogg">[pa]</phonos>	'nose'
Korean		풀/pul	[pʰul]	'grass'	See Korean phonology
Lakota		púza	[ˈpʊza]	'dry'
Luxembourgish		bëlleg	[ˈpɵ̞lɵ̞ɕ]	'cheap'	Less often voiced [b]. It is usually transcribed /b/, and contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /p/. See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		пее	[pɛː]	'sing'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		panas	[pänäs]	'hot'
Maltese		aptit	[apˈtit]	'appetite'
Marathi		पाऊस	[pɑːˈuːs]	'rain'	See Marathi phonology
Mutsun		po·čor	[poːt͡ʃor]	'a sore'
Norwegian		pappa	[pɑpːɑ]	'dad'	See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		پانير	[pɑˈnir]	'cheese'
Pirahã		pibaóí	[ˈpìbàóí̯]	'otter'
Polish		pas	<phonos file="Pl-pas.ogg">[päs]</phonos>	'belt'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		pai	[paj]	'father'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਪੱਤਾ	[pət̪ːäː]	'leaf'
Romanian		pas	[pas]	'step'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		плод	[pɫot̪]	'fruit'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Slovak		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'
Spanish		peso	[ˈpe̞so̞]	'weight'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		apa	[ˈɑːpʰa]	'ape'	See Swedish phonology
Tsez		пу	[pʰu]	'side'	Contrasts with ejective form.
Turkish		kap	[kʰäp]	'pot'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		павук	[pɐ.ˈvuk]	'spider'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		nhíp	[ɲip˧ˀ˥]	'tweezers'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		panne	[ˈpɔnə]	'pan'
Yi		ꀠ/ba	[pa˧]	'exchange'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	pan	[paŋ]	'bread'

See also

• List of phonetics topics