Advertisement

Advertisement

labiodental

[ ley-bee-oh-den-tl ]

adjective

  1. articulated with the lower lip touching the upper front teeth, as f or v, or, rarely, with the upper lip touching the lower front teeth.


noun

  1. a labiodental speech sound.

labiodental

/ ˌleɪbɪəʊˈdɛntəl /

adjective

  1. pronounced by bringing the bottom lip into contact or near contact with the upper teeth, as for the fricative (f) in English fat, puff
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a labiodental consonant
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of labiodental1

First recorded in 1660–70; labio- + dental
Discover More

Example Sentences

And others point out that labiodental sounds have even been found among hunter-gatherers with edge-to-edge bites, like some Yanomami people of South America, who live mostly as isolated hunter-gatherers, fishers and horticulturists.

To test this hypothesis, they analyzed databases of the world’s consonants and showed contemporary hunter–gatherer languages contain only a fraction of the labiodental sounds that food-producer languages do.

In particular, it becomes much easier to say “f” and “v,” which linguists call “labiodental” sounds.

Further analysis found that labiodental consonants could have spread rapidly in languages since the dawn of agriculture, to the point that they are found in half of the 7,000 or so languages still spoken.

The w in Dutch is mostly labiodental; in the eastern parts before vowels bilabial pronunciation is heard.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement