The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is p, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. The voiceless bilabial plosive in English is spelled with 'p', as in pit or speed.
Features
Features of the voiceless bilabial plosive:
Varieties of the voiceless bilabial plosive
English has both aspirated and plain [p], but they are allophones.
When [p] occurs at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable, like in print, support, or potato, then it is always aspirated. When it occurs at the beginning of an unstressed syllable that isn't at the beginning of a word, like in occupant, vapid, or keeper, then it is always unaspirated. When [p] occurs in a consonant cluster following [s], like in spin, sprain, or suspend, then it is always unaspirated. When it occurs at the end of a word, like in tip, wasp, or telescope, then it is usually unaspirated, and if the word is at the end of an utterance, then the [p] is often unreleased.
In other languages
The [p] sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [p], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [p].
Georgian has aspirated and ejective [p]. They are distinct phonemes, not allophones. Aspirated p is spelled with ფ. Ejective p is spelled with პ .
As in English, in German, plain and aspirated [p] are allophones.
In Ancient Greek, plain and aspirated [p] were separate phonemes, represented by the letters pi (π) and phi (φ) respectively. In Modern Greek there is no aspirated [p], phi having come to be pronounced [f].
See also
