Labialization

Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded.

"Lip rounding" redirects here. For the lip rounding of vowels, see Roundedness.
Labialized
◌ʷ
Sound change and alternation
Fortition
Dissimilation

The most common labialized consonants are labialized velars. Most other labialized sounds also have simultaneous velarization, and the process may then be more precisely called labio-velarization.

In phonology, labialization may also refer to a type of assimilation process.

Occurrence

Labialization is the most widespread secondary articulation in the world's languages. It is phonemically contrastive in Northwest Caucasian (e.g. Adyghe), Athabaskan, and Salishan language families, among others. This contrast is reconstructed also for Proto-Indo-European, the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages; and it survives in Latin and some Romance languages.

American English has three degrees of labialization: tight rounded (/w/, initial /r/), slight rounded (/ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, coloring /r/), and unrounded, which in vowels is sometimes called 'spread'. These secondary articulations are not universal. For example, French shares the English slight rounding of /ʃ/, /ʒ/ while Russian does not have slight rounding in its postalveolar fricatives (/ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ/).[1]

A few languages, including Arrernte and Mba, have contrastive labialized forms for almost all of their consonants.

Types
Open-labialialized
◌ꟹ

Out of 706 language inventories surveyed by Ruhlen (1976), labialization occurred most often with velar (42%) and uvular (15%) segments and least often with dental and alveolar segments. With non-dorsal consonants, labialization may include velarization as well. Labialization is not restricted to lip-rounding. The following articulations have either been described as labialization, or been found as allophonic realizations of prototypical labialization:

  • Labiodental frication, found in Abkhaz[2]
  • Complete bilabial closure, [d͡b, t͡p, t͡pʼ], found in Abkhaz and Ubykh[3]
  • "Labialization" (/w/, /ɡʷ/, and /kʷ/) without noticeable rounding (protrusion) of the lips, found in the Iroquoian languages. It may be that they are compressed.
  • Rounding without velarization, found in Shona and in the Bzyb dialect of Abkhaz.

Eastern Arrernte has labialization at all places and manners of articulation; this derives historically from adjacent rounded vowels, as is also the case of the Northwest Caucasian languages. Marshallese also has phonemic labialization as a secondary articulation at all places of articulation except for labial consonants and coronal obstruents.

In North America, languages from a number of families have sounds that sound labialized (and vowels that sound rounded) without participation of the lips. See Tillamook language for an example.

Transcription

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, labialization of velar consonants is indicated with a raised w modifier [ʷ] (Unicode U+02B7), as in /kʷ/. (Elsewhere this diacritic generally indicates simultaneous labialization and velarization.) There are also diacritics, respectively [ɔ̹], [ɔ̜], to indicate greater or lesser degrees of rounding.[4] These are normally used with vowels, but may occur with consonants. For example, in the Athabaskan language Hupa, voiceless velar fricatives distinguish three degrees of labialization, transcribed either /x/, /x̹/, /xʷ/ or /x/, /x̜ʷ/, /xʷ/.

The extensions to the IPA has two additional symbols for degrees of rounding: Spread [ɹ͍] and open-rounded [ʒꟹ] (as in English). It also has a symbol for labiodentalized sounds, [tᶹ].[5]

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, [ ̫], which would be placed above a letter with a descender such as ɡ. However, their chief example is Shona sv and zv, which they transcribe /s̫/ and /z̫/ but which actually seem to be whistled sibilants, without necessarily being labialized.[6] Another possibility is to use the IPA diacritic for rounding, distinguishing for example the labialization in English soon [s̹] and [sʷ] swoon.[7] The open rounding of English /ʃ/ is also unvelarized.

Assimilation

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 the Northwest Caucasian languages as well as some Australian languages rounding 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 and Eastern Arrernte, for example. The labial vowel sounds usually still remain, but only as allophones next to the now-labial consonant sounds.

Examples

Stops
Labial–velar

Affricates
Sibilant affricates

Non-sibilant affricates

Lateral affricates

Fricatives

Sibilant fricatives
  • labialized voiceless alveolar sibilant [sʷ] (in Archi, Lao, Lezgian)
  • labialized voiced alveolar sibilant [zʷ] (in Archi, Tsakhur, Lezgian)
  • labialized voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant [ʃʷ] (in Archi, Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Paha, Aghul, Ubykh)
  • labialized voiced palato-alveolar sibilant [ʒʷ] (in Archi, Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Aghul, Ubykh)
  • labialized voiceless retroflex sibilant [ʂʷ] (in Bzhedug)
  • labialized voiced retroflex sibilant [ʐʷ] (in Bzhedug)
  • labialized voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant [ɕʷ] (in Abkhaz, Ubykh)
  • labialized voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant [ʑʷ] (in Abkhaz, Ubykh)

Central non-sibilant fricatives

Pseudo-fricatives

Lateral fricatives

Nasals
  • labialized bilabial nasal [mʷ] (in Chaha, Paha, Tamambo)
  • labialized palatal nasal [ɲʷ] (in Akan)
  • labialized velar nasal [ŋʷ] (in Akan, Avestan, Lao, Hiw)
  • labialized labial-velar nasal [ŋ͡mʷ] (in Dorig, Mwotlap)

Approximants

Ejectives
gollark: Roughly, yes.
gollark: I mostly picked it because I quite like programming as a hobby *now*, and assumed that would make it easier/better as an A-level.
gollark: Computer science.
gollark: > I avoid CS like the plague nowWhy?
gollark: Vaguely considering switching to chemistry instead of CS, since I technically *can* do that until term actually starts.

See also

References
  1. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:148)
  4. As a mnemonic, the more-rounded diacritics resembles the rounded vowel ⟨ɔ⟩.
  5. 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. ISBN 978-0-52163751-0.
  6. See . Archived May 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed.
  8. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)

Bibliography
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