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Voiced bilabial plosive
Voiced bilabial plosive
b
IPA number	102
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	b
Unicode (hex)	U+0062
X-SAMPA	b
Braille

The voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨b⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b. The voiced bilabial stop occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨b⟩ in obey [oʊˈbeɪ].

Features

Features of the voiced 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 plosive.
Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
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.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Varieties

IPA	Description
b	plain b
bʷ	labialised
b̜ʷ	semi-labialised
b̹ʷ	strongly labialised
bʲ	palatalised
bʱ	breathy voiced
bˠ	velarised

Occurrence

Occurrence of [b] in several languages
Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		бгъу / bġ°	[bʁʷə]^ⓘ	'nine'
Albanian		bletë	['bletə]	'bee'
Arabic	Standard^[1]	باب / baab / bāb	[baːb]	'door'	See Arabic phonology
Assyrian		ܒܒܐ baba	[baːba]	'father'
Armenian	Eastern^[2]	բարի/bari	[bɑˈɾi]^ⓘ	'kind'
Basque		bero	[beɾo]	'hot'
Bengali		বলো / balo	[bɔlo]	'say!'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Catalan^[3]		bell	[ˈbeʎ]	'beautiful'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		борз / borz	[borz]	'wolf'
Czech		bota	[ˈbota]	'boot'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard^[4]^[5]	løber	[ˈløːbɐ]	'runner'	Only partially voiced; possible allophone of /b/ in the intervocalic position. More often voiceless [p].^[4]^[5] See Danish phonology
Dutch^[6]		boer	[buːr]	'farmer'	See Dutch phonology
English		aback	[əˈbæk]^ⓘ	'aback'	See English phonology
Esperanto		batalo	[baˈtalo]	'war'	See Esperanto phonology
Filipino		buto	[buto]	'bone'
French^[7]		boue	[bu]	'mud'	See French phonology
Georgian^[8]		ბავშვი / bavšvi	[ˈbavʃvi]	'child'
German		aber	[ˈäːbɐ]^ⓘ	'but'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		μπόχα / bócha	[ˈbo̞xa]	'reek'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		બક્રી / bakri	[bəkri]	'goat'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		בית / báyit	[bajit]	'house'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	बाल / bāl	[bäːl]	'hair'	Contrasts with aspirated version /bʱ/. See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hindustani	Urdu	بال / bāl	[bäːl]	'hair'
Hungarian		baba	[ˈbɒbɒ]	'baby'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian^[9]		bile	[ˈbile]	'rage'	See Italian phonology
Japanese^[10]		番 / ban	[baɴ]	'(one's) turn'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		бгъуы/bg"uy	[bʁʷə]^ⓘ	'nine'
Korean		지붕 / jibung	[t͡ɕibuŋ]	'roof'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Northern	bav	[bɑːv]	'father'	See Kurdish phonology
	Central	باوک/bâwk	[bɑːwk]
	Southern	باوگ/bâwig	[bɑːwɨg]
Luxembourgish^[11]		geblosen	[ɡ̊əˈbloːzən]	'blown'	More often voiceless [p].^[11] See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		убав/ubav	[ˈubav]	'beautiful'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		baru	[bäru]	'new'
Maltese		għatba	[aːtˈba]	'threshold'
Marathi		बटाटा / baṭāṭā	[bəˈʈaːʈaː]	'potato'	See Marathi phonology
Nepali		बाटो / bāṭo	[bäʈo]	'path'	See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		bål	[ˈbɔːl]	'bonfire'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ବାର/barô	[bärɔ]	'twelve'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Persian		خوب/ xub	[xub]	'good'	See Persian phonology
Pirahã		pibaóí	[ˈpìbàóí̯]	'parent'
Polish^[12]		bas	[bäs]^ⓘ	'bass'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese^[13]		bato	[ˈbatu]	'I strike'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਬਿੱਲੀ/billī	[bɪlːi]	'cat'
Romanian^[14]		bou	[bow]	'bull'	See Romanian phonology.
Russian^[15]		рыба / ryba	[ˈrɨbə]	'fish'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[16]		биће / biće	[bǐːt͡ɕě]	'being'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		byť	[bi̞c]	'to be'
Slovene		biti	[ˈbìːt̪í]	'to be'
Southern Min		閩 / ban	[ban]	'Fujian province'	Only in colloquial speech.
Spanish^[17]		invertir	[ĩmbe̞ɾˈt̪iɾ]	'to invest'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		bra	[ˈbɾɑː]	'good'	May be an approximant in casual speech. See Swedish phonology
Telugu		బడి	[badi]	'school'	Contrasts with aspirated form. Aspirated form is articulated as breathy consonant.
Thai		บำบัด / bam-bàt	[bam.bat̚]	'therapy'	See Thai phonology
Turkish		bulut	[ˈbuɫut̪]	'cloud'	See Turkish phonology
Tyap		bai	[bai]	'to come'
Ukrainian^[18]		брат / brat	[brɑt̪]	'brother'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		mab	[mɑːb]	'son'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		bak	[bak]	'tray'
Wu		皮 / bi	[bi]	'skin'
Xiang		浮 / baw	[bau]	'to float'
Yi		ꁧ / bbo	[bo˧]	'mountain'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[19]	bald	[bald]	'few'

Notes

^ Thelwall (1990:37)
^ Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
^ ^a ^b Goblirsch (2018), pp. 134–5, citing Fischer-Jørgensen (1952) and Abrahams (1949, pp. 116–21, 228–30).
^ ^a ^b Puggaard-Rode, Horslund & Jørgensen (2022).
^ Gussenhoven (1992:45)
^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
^ Okada (1999:117)
^ ^a ^b Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67–68.
^ Jassem (2003:103)
^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
^ DEX Online : [1]
^ Padgett (2003:42)
^ Landau et al. (1999), p. 66.
^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
^ Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
^ Merrill (2008:108)

References

Abrahams, Henrik (1949), Études phonétiques sur les tendances évolutives des occlusives germaniques, Aarhus University Press
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Fischer-Jørgensen, Eli (1952), "Om stemtheds assimilation", in Bach, H.; et al. (eds.), Festskrift til L. L. Hammerich, Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad, pp. 116–129
Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
Goblirsch, Kurt (2018), Gemination, Lenition, and Vowel Lengthening: On the History of Quantity in Germanic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-03450-1
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID 243772965
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID 13470826
Puggaard-Rode, Rasmus; Horslund, Camilla Søballe; Jørgensen, Henrik (2022), "The rarity of intervocalic voicing of stops in Danish spontaneous speech", Laboratory Phonology, 13 (1), doi:10.16995/labphon.6449, hdl:1887/3304670
Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727