Inphonetics, the voiced labiodental flap is a speech sound found primarily in languages of Central Africa, such as Kera and Mangbetu. It has also been reported in the Austronesian language Sika.[1] It is one of the few non-rhoticflaps. The sound begins with the lower lip placed behind the upper teeth. The lower lip is then flipped outward, striking the upper teeth in passing.[2]
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ⱱ⟩, which resembles Cyrillic izhitsa, ⟨ѵ⟩, but is composed of a V and the hook of the flap ⟨ɾ⟩. In 2005, the International Phonetic Association, responding to Kenneth Olson's request for its adoption, voted to include a symbol for this sound, and selected a v with a right hook,[3] that is, a combination of ⟨v⟩ + ⟨ɾ⟩. As of version 5.1.0, the Unicode character set encodes this character at U+2C71 (ⱱ). In earlier literature, it is often transcribed by a v modified by the extra-short diacritic, ⟨v̆⟩,[4] following a 1989 recommendation of the International Phonetic Association.[5] Another historic symbol for this sound was v with curl⟨ⱴ⟩, which had been employed in articles from the School of Oriental and African Studies, by Joseph Greenberg,[6] and others.[7]
Its manner of articulationisflap, which normally means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact. In this case, being a non-rhotic consonant, the flap is made with the lower lip.
The labiodental flap is found primarily in Central Africa, in as many as a few hundred languages found in the Chadic family (Margi, Tera), Ubangian (Ngbaka, Ma'bo, Sera), Mbum (e.g. Kare), Central Sudanic (Mangbetu, Kresh), and Bantoid (Ngwe, some Shona dialects). It is extremely rare outside Africa, though it has been reported from SikainFlores.
Since most of the lexical items are ideophones, it is not definitively the case that the labial flap has been fully incorporated into the phonological system of Kera.[11]
Contrasts with /v/ and /β/. May also be realized as [b̪]
The bilabial flap is a variant of the labiodental flap in several languages, including Mono. This sound involves striking the upper lip rather than the upper teeth. The two sounds are not known to contrast in any language; the term labial flap can be used as a broader description encompassing both sounds.[13]
InSika, the flap is heard in careful pronunciation, but it may also be realized as a voiced labiodental stop, [b̪], or an affricate. It contrasts with both a bilabial and a labiodental fricative:[14]
International Phonetic Association (1989), "Report on the 1989 Kiel Convention", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 19 (2): 67–80, doi:10.1017/S0025100300003868, S2CID249412330
International Phonetic Association (2005), "IPA news", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 261–262, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002227, S2CID232350099
Olson, Kenneth S; Hajek, John (1999), "The phonetic status of the labial flap", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2): 101–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006484, S2CID14438770
Olson, Kenneth S; Hajek, John (2003), "Crosslinguistic insights on the labial flap", Linguistic Typology, 7 (2): 157–186, doi:10.1515/lity.2003.014
Olson, Kenneth S; Hajek, John (2004), "A crosslinguistic lexicon of the labial flap", Linguistic Discovery, 2 (2): 21–57, doi:10.1349/ps1.1537-0852.a.262
Olson, Kenneth S. (2004), "Mono"(PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 233–238, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001744
Olson, Kenneth; Schrag, Brian (2000), "An overview of Mono phonology", in Wolff, H.E.; Gensler, O. (eds.), Proceedings from the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig 1997, Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, pp. 393–409
