The voiceless bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in most spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨p⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p
.
Voiceless bilabial plosive | |
---|---|
p | |
IPA Number | 101 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | p |
Unicode (hex) | U+0070 |
X-SAMPA | p |
Braille | ![]() |
Audio sample | |
source · help |
Features of the voiceless bilabial stop:
IPA | Description |
---|---|
p | plain p |
pʰ | aspirated p |
pˠ | velarized p |
pʲ | palatalized p |
pʷ | labialized p |
p̚ | p with no audible release |
p̌ | voiced p |
p͈ | tense p |
pʼ | ejective p |
The stop [p] is missing from about 10% of languages that have a [b]. (See voiced velar stop for another such gap.) This is an areal feature of the "circum-Saharan zone" (Africa north of the equator, including the Arabian peninsula). It is not known how old this areal feature is, and whether it might be a recent phenomenon due to Arabic as a prestige language (Arabic lost its /p/ in prehistoric times), or whether Arabic was itself affected by a more ancient areal pattern. It is found in other areas as well; for example, in Europe, Proto-Celtic and Old Basque are both reconstructed as having [b] but no [p].
Nonetheless, the [p] sound is very common cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [p], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between the aspirated [pʰ] and the plain [p] (also transcribed as [p˭] in extensions to the IPA).
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adyghe | паӏо/paio | [paːʔʷa] (help·info) | 'hat' | ||
Arabic | Algerian | پاپيش/pāpīš | [paːpiːʃ] | 'beautiful girls' | |
Hejazi | پول/pōl | [po̞ːl] | 'Paul' | Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as ⟨ب⟩ by many speakers. | |
Egyptian | كبش/kabš | [kɛpʃ] | 'ram' | Allophone of [b] before unvoiced consonants. Also used in loanwords. | |
Armenian | Eastern[1] | պապիկ/papik | [pɑpik] (help·info) | 'grandpa' | Contrasts with aspirated form |
Assyrian | ܦܬܐ pata | [pata] | 'face' | ||
Basque | harrapatu | [(h)arapatu] | 'to catch' | ||
Bengali | Eastern | পানি/panī | [paniː] | 'water' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology |
Catalan[2] | por | [ˈpɔ(ɾ)] | 'fear' | See Catalan phonology | |
Chinese | Cantonese | 爆炸 / baauja | [paːu˧ t͡saː˧] | 'explosion' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Cantonese phonology |
Mandarin | 爆炸 / bàozhà | [pɑʊ˥˩ tʂa˥˩] | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology | ||
Wu | 北 / poq⁷ | [poʔ⁵⁵] | "north" | Pronunciation taken from Shanghainese | |
Hokkien | 邊 / pian | [piɛn⁴⁴] | "edge" | See Hokkien phonology | |
Chuvash | путене/putene | [put̬ʲɛ'nɛ] | 'quail' | ||
Czech | pes | [pɛs] | 'dog' | See Czech phonology | |
Danish | Standard[3] | bog | [ˈpɔ̽ʊ̯ˀ] | 'book' | Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨b̥⟩ or ⟨b⟩. Contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨pʰ⟩ or ⟨p⟩. See Danish phonology |
Dutch[4] | plicht | [plɪxt] | 'duty' | See Dutch phonology | |
English | pack | [pʰæk] | 'pack' | See English phonology | |
Esperanto | tempo | [ˈtempo] | 'time' | See Esperanto phonology | |
Filipino | pato | [paˈto] | 'duck' | ||
Finnish | pappa | [ˈpɑpːɑ] | 'grandpa' | See Finnish phonology | |
French[5] | pomme | [pɔm] | 'apple' | See French phonology | |
German | Pack | [pʰak] | 'pile' | See Standard German phonology | |
Greek | πόδι / pódi | [ˈpo̞ði] | 'leg' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
Gujarati | પગ/pag | [pəɡ] | 'foot' | See Gujarati phonology | |
Hebrew | פּקיד/pakid | [pakid] | 'clerk' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
Hindustani | Urdu | پل/pal | [pəl] | 'moment' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology |
Hindi | पल / pal | ||||
Hungarian | pápa | [ˈpaːpɒ] | 'pope' | See Hungarian phonology | |
Italian[6] | papà | [paˈpa] | 'dad' | See Italian phonology | |
Japanese[7] | ポスト / posuto | [posɯto] | 'mailbox' | See Japanese phonology | |
Kabardian | пэ/pė | [pa] (help·info) | 'nose' | ||
Khmer | ពន្យល់ / pônyól | [pɔnjɔl] | 'to explain' | See Khmer phonology | |
Korean | 빛 / bit | [pit̚] | 'light' | See Korean phonology | |
Kurdish | Northern | por | [ˈpʰoːɾ] | 'hair' | See Kurdish phonology |
Central | پیرۆزە/píroze | [pʰiːɾoːzæ] | 'lammergeier' | ||
Southern | پۊنگه/pûûnga | [pʰʉːŋa] | 'pennyroyal' | ||
Lakota | púza | [ˈpʊza] | 'dry' | ||
Lithuanian | pastatas | [ˈpaːstɐtɐs] | 'building' | See Lithuanian phonology | |
Luxembourgish[8] | bëlleg | [ˈpələɕ] | 'cheap' | Less often voiced [b]. It is usually transcribed /b/, and contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /p/.[8] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
Macedonian | пее/pee | [pɛː] | 'sing' | See Macedonian phonology | |
Malay | panas | [pänäs] | 'hot' | Often unreleased in syllable codas so /p/ is read as [p̚] instead in lembap [ləmbap̚] 'damp'. See Malay phonology | |
Maltese | aptit | [apˈtit] | 'appetite' | ||
Marathi | पाऊस/paa'uus/pā'ūs | [pɑːˈuːs] | 'rain' | See Marathi phonology | |
Mutsun | po·čor | [poːt͡ʃor] | 'a sore' | ||
Nepali | पिता/pitā | [pit̪ä] | 'father' | See Nepali phonology | |
Norwegian | pappa | [pɑpːɑ] | 'dad' | See Norwegian phonology | |
Odia | ପଥର/pathara | [pɔʈʰɔrɔ] | 'stone' | Contrasts with aspirated form. | |
Pashto | پانير/pa'nir | [pɑˈnir] | 'cheese' | ||
Persian | پول/pul | [pul] | 'money' | ||
Pirahã | pibaóí | [ˈpìbàóí̯] | 'otter' | ||
Polish[9] | pas | [päs] (help·info) | 'belt' | See Polish phonology | |
Portuguese[10] | pai | [paj] | 'father' | See Portuguese phonology | |
Punjabi | ਪੱਤਾ/pattaa/pattā | [pət̪ːäː] | 'leaf' | ||
Romanian | pas | [pas] | 'step' | See Romanian phonology | |
Russian[11] | плод/plod | [pɫot̪] | 'fruit' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology | |
Serbo-Croatian[12] | пиће / piće | [pǐːt͡ɕě] | 'drink' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
Slovak | pes | [pɛ̝s] | 'dog' | ||
Spanish[13] | peso | [ˈpe̞so̞] | 'weight' | See Spanish phonology | |
Swahili | pombe | [ˈpoᵐbɛ] | 'beer' | ||
Swedish | apa | [ˈɑːˌpa] | 'monkey' | See Swedish phonology | |
Thai | แป้ง/paeng | [pɛ̂ːŋ] | 'powder' | See Thai phonology | |
Tsez | пу/pu | [pʰu] | 'side' | Contrasts with ejective form. | |
Turkish | kap | [kʰäp] | 'pot' | See Turkish phonology | |
Ukrainian[14] | павук/pavuk | [pɐˈβ̞uk] | 'spider' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
Vietnamese[15] | nhíp | [ɲip˧ˀ˥] | 'tweezers' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
Welsh | siop | [ʃɔp] | 'shop' | See Welsh phonology | |
West Frisian | panne | [ˈpɔnə] | 'pan' | ||
Yi | ꀠ / ba | [pa˧] | 'exchange' | Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. | |
Central Alaskan Yup'ik | panik | [panik] | 'daughter' | ||
Zapotec | Tilquiapan[16] | pan | [paŋ] | 'bread' |