Bilabials are fun!

[pne]

Remember how a couple of days ago I wrote about Amy's first plosive?

She seems to have mastered it now; today she often said lovely words such as [æbæbæwæwæbæbæbæβæβæbæbæwæbæbæβæβæbæbæwæwæbæbæ]. (Judging by the length of the word, her "native language" is presumably something agglutinative. And with a fairly minimal phonology.) And Stella said she's been talking like that most of the day.

So, mostly [b] (voiced bilabial stop) but also several bilabial approximants and the odd voiced bilabial fricative. Bilabials certainly seem to be her thing. (And I think the vowel is [æ] rather than [a]. You could make a case for it being phonemically /a/, though, I guess.)

That follows the learning pattern she's already shown in a few other things: do something once, then several days later start doing it again, this time consistently.

Tomorrow, [æbæbæbæbæ] ("the world")!

Comments

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

[βæβæbæbæ]

What's the difference between those two flavours of the 'b' sound? Extra spit? (In my extensive experience with babies, the two variations of the 'b' sound they make are the 'normal' b and the 'extra spit' option, which usually also comes with some buzzing.)

I assume [mæmæmæmæ] is already established?

Don't worry dada, [dædædædæ] will come soon. %-)

[pne.livejournal.com]

What's the difference between those two flavours of the 'b' sound?

[b] is a voiced bilabial plosive/stop; [β] is a voiced bilabial fricative—a bit like [v], but using both lips rather than with teeth against lips. The lips come close together but don't close completely, allowing air to move between them turbulently.

The voiceless version might be easier to describe: it's roughly the sound you make when blowing out a candle. So think of blowing out a candle while humming, and you have [β].

I assume [mæmæmæmæ] is already established?

Nope; haven't heard any nasals from her yet, not even [m]. Up to now, if there were any consonants at all, they were very far at the back (hence my "voiced pharyngeal fricative" guess in my previous post), but mostly just vowels.

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

No [m]? That's odd. Other than just plain screaming, that's the first recognisable sound I usually hear out of babies. The bilabials seem to come fairly soon after (if not at the same time). Or maybe that's just my brood.

[pne.livejournal.com]

That's odd. Other than just plain screaming, that's the first recognisable sound I usually hear out of babies.

I guess Amy decided to be special :)

But yeah, [mama] is, after all, stereotypically the first recognisable word for a baby.

The bilabials seem to come fairly soon after

[m] is also bilabial: it's a voiced bilabial nasal. I suppose you mean "bilabial stops", though.

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

[m] is also bilabial: it's a voiced bilabial nasal. I suppose you mean "bilabial stops", though.

Yeah, something like that. Stops and fricatives, I guess. I'm not much of a linguist.

[β] is a voiced bilabial fricative—a bit like [v], but using both lips rather than with teeth against lips. The lips come close together but don't close completely, allowing air to move between them turbulently. ... So think of blowing out a candle while humming, and you have [β].

When I see how a [v] or [v]-like sound is spelled 'bh' in Gaelic (viz. the name 'Siobhan', usu. pronounced [∫∂'van]), I wonder if the Gaelic sound is (or was?) more of a [β] than a [v]. Curiosity, that's all.

(Probably got the wrong 'a' in there for the Siobhan pron., but I can't be arsed to get a full-tilt IPA thing going here.)

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

"And I think the vowel is [æ] rather than [a]. You could make a case for it being phonemically /a/, though, I guess."

But Germans don't usually think of [æ] as /a/. Why would Amy? ;)

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

So how does [æbæbæbæbæ] break down morphemically? ;)

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

Probably the reason why the bilabial nasal seems to be nearly universally present in words for "mother", from Navajo to English.

Except for Georgian, that is...

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

What is it in Georgian?

(And I assume we're talking Central-Asian-Georgian, not Atlanta-Georgian? %-)

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's right. :P

In Georgian, mama actually means father - and deda means mother.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Wish I knew :) I think I'll have to do more field work before I'll be able to isolate individual morphemes. Unfortunately, my only informant is monolingual and not particularly co-operative.

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

You are such a language geek.

I couldn't even tell you which consonants Erika said first, or which ones she says now, for that matter. :-)