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What do we symbolize? Thoughts prompted by bilabial and labiodental fricatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Peter Ladefoged
Peter Ladefoged
Affiliation:
Phonetics Laboratory, Linguistics Department, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1543
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Extract

The contrast between bilabial and labiodental fricatives is comparatively rare in the world's languages. In his survey of 317 languages Maddieson (1984) notes only one that has the full set of voiced and voiceless sounds [φ, β, f, v], and only four other languages that contrast just the voiced pair. There is no doubt that these contrasts do occur, and that phonologists such as Sagey (1986) are wrong in neglecting to provide for them. This note will provide further particulars of the contrast in languages in which it has not been so well documented in the general linguistic literature. It will also suggest that this contrast may not be made in the same way in all languages, and discuss the implications for the IPA and for theories of phonetic description.

Type
Phonetic Representation b) Discussion
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1990 , pp. 32 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1990

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References

Abercrombie, D. (1967). Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Maddieson, I. (1984). Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagey, E. (1986). The Representation of Features and Relations in Nonlinear Phonology. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1968). A Phonetic Study of West African Languages. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar