Labialization
| Labialized | |
|---|---|
| ◌ᵝ |
| Labial(-velar)ized with protrusion | |
|---|---|
| ◌ʷ |
| Sound changeandalternation |
|---|
| Fortition |
| Dissimilation |
Labializationis asecondary articulatoryfeature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of theoral cavityproduces another sound. The term is normally restricted toconsonants.When vowels involve the lips, they are calledrounded.
The most common labialized consonants arelabialized velars.Most other labialized sounds also have simultaneousvelarization,and the process may then be more precisely calledlabio-velarization.The "labialization" of bilabial consonants often refers toprotrusioninstead of a secondary articulatory featurevelarization.[pʷ] doesn't mean [pˠ] although [w] refers to alabial–velar approximant.
Inphonology,labialization may also refer to a type ofassimilationprocess.
Occurrence[edit]
Labialization is the most widespread secondary articulation in the world's languages. It is phonemically contrastive inNorthwest Caucasian(e.g.Adyghe),Athabaskan,andSalishanlanguage families,among others. This contrast is reconstructed also forProto-Indo-European,the common ancestor of theIndo-European languages;and it survives inLatinand someRomance languages.It is also found in theCushiticandEthio-Semiticlanguages.
American Englishlabializes/r,ʃ,ʒ,tʃ,dʒ/to various degrees.[citation needed]
A few languages, includingArrernteandMba,have contrastive labialized forms for almost all of their consonants.
In manySalishan languages,such asKlallam,velar consonants only occur in their labialized forms (except /k/, which occurs in some loanwords). However, uvular consonants occur abundantly labialized and unrounded.
Types[edit]
| Open-labialized | |
|---|---|
| ◌ꟹ |
Out of 706 language inventories surveyed byRuhlen (1976),labialization occurred most often withvelar(42%) anduvular(15%) segments and least often withdentalandalveolarsegments. With non-dorsal consonants, labialization may includevelarizationas well. Labialization is not restricted to lip-rounding. The following articulations have either been described as labialization or been found asallophonicrealizations of prototypical labialization:
- Labiodental frication, found inAbkhaz[1]
- Complete bilabial closure,[d͡b,t͡p,t͡pʼ],found in Abkhaz and Ubykh[1]
- "Labialization" (/w/,/ɡʷ/,and/kʷ/) without noticeable rounding (protrusion) of the lips, found in theIroquoian languages[citation needed].It may be that they arecompressed.[citation needed]
- Rounding without velarization, found inShona[citation needed]and in theBzyb dialectofAbkhaz.[citation needed]
Eastern Arrerntehas labialization at allplacesandmanners of articulation;this derives historically from adjacent rounded vowels, as is also the case of theNorthwest Caucasian languages.Marshallesealso has phonemic labialization as asecondary articulationat all places of articulation except forlabial consonantsandcoronalobstruents.
In North America, languages from a number of families have sounds that sound labialized (and vowels that sound rounded) without the participation of the lips. SeeTillamook languagefor an example.
Prelabialization[edit]
InSlovene,sounds can be prelabialized. Furthermore, the change is phonemic and all phonemes have prelabialized pairs (though not all of their allophones can have pairs). Comparestati'stand'[ˈs̪t̪àːt̪í]andvstati'stand up'[ˈʷs̪t̪àːt̪í].The prelabialization part, however, is usually not considered as being part of the same phoneme as prelabialized sound, but rather as an allophone of/ʋ/as it changes depending on the environment, e. g.vzeti'take'[ˈʷz̪èːt̪í]andpovzeti'summarize'[pou̯ˈz̪èːt̪í].[2]SeeSlovene phonologyfor more details.
Transcription[edit]
In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet,labialization of velar consonants is indicated with a raised w modifier[ʷ](UnicodeU+02B7), as in/kʷ/.(Elsewhere this diacritic generally indicates simultaneous labialization and velarization.[citation needed]) There are also diacritics, respectively[ɔ̹],[ɔ̜],to indicate greater or lesser degrees of rounding.[3]These are normally used with vowels but may occur with consonants. For example, in theAthabaskan languageHupa,voiceless velar fricativesdistinguish three degrees of labialization, transcribed either/x/,/x̹/,/xʷ/or/x/,/x̜ʷ/,/xʷ/.
Theextensions to the IPAhas two additional symbols for degrees of rounding: Spread[ɹ͍]and open-rounded[ʒꟹ](as in English). It also has a symbol forlabiodentalizedsounds,[tᶹ].[4]
If precision is desired, the Abkhaz and Ubykh articulations may be transcribed with the appropriate fricative or trill raised as a diacritic:[tᵛ],[tᵝ],[tʙ],[tᵖ].
For simple labialization,Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996)resurrected an old IPA symbol,[ ̫],[5]which would be placed above a letter with a descender such asɡ.However, their chief example is Shonasvandzv,which they transcribe/s̫/and/z̫/but which actually seem to bewhistled sibilants,without necessarily being labialized.[6]Another possibility is to use the IPA diacritic for rounding, distinguishing for example the labialization in Englishsoon[s̹]and[sʷ]swoon.[7]The open rounding of English/ʃ/is also unvelarized.
Assimilation[edit]
Labialization also refers to a specific type of assimilatory process where a given sound become labialized due to the influence of neighboring labial sounds. For example,/k/may become/kʷ/in the environment of/o/,or/a/may become/o/in the environment of/p/or/kʷ/.
In theNorthwest Caucasian languagesas well as someAustralian languagesrounding has shifted from the vowels to the consonants, producing a wide range of labialized consonants and leaving in some cases only two phonemic vowels. This appears to have been the case in Ubykh andEastern Arrernte,for example. The labial vowel sounds usually still remain, but only as allophones next to the now-labial consonant sounds.
List of labialized consonants[edit]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^abSiegel, Bernard J. (1977).Annual Review of Anthropology.Annual Reviews Incorporated.ISBN9780824319069.
- ^Jurgec, Peter (2007),Novejše besedje s stališča fonologije Primer slovenščine(in Slovenian), Tromsø, p. 95
{{citation}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^As a mnemonic, the more-rounded diacritics resemble the rounded vowel ⟨ɔ⟩.
- ^International Phonetic Association (1999).Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.Cambridge University Press. p. 190.ISBN978-0-52163751-0.
- ^This is not a subscriptwbut originally a subscript Omega that "recalls the letterw"(Jespersen & Pedersen, 1926,Phonetic Transcription and Transliteration: Proposals of the Copenhagen Conference, April 1925.Oxford University Press).
- ^See[1].ArchivedMay 16, 2008, at theWayback Machine
- ^John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds)The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences,2nd ed.
- ^Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)
Bibliography[edit]
- Crowley, Terry (1997).An Introduction to Historical Linguistics(3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
- Ladefoged, Peter;Maddieson, Ian(1996).The Sounds of the World's Languages.Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN0-631-19815-6.
- Ruhlen, Merritt(1976).A Guide to the Languages of the World.Stanford University Press.
- Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015)."Russian".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.45(2): 221–228.doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395.
