Voiceless bilabial plosive

Features of the voiceless bilabial stop:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.

• Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

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).

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		паӏо/paio	[paːʔʷa]	'hat'
Arabic	Algerian	پاپيش‎/pāpīš	[paːpiːʃ]	'beautiful girls'
	Hejazi	إسپانيا‎/ispānya	[ɪspaːnja]	'Spain'	Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as ⟨b⟩ by many speakers.
Armenian	Eastern[1]	պապիկ/papik	[pɑpik]	'grandpa'	Contrasts with aspirated form
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		pata‎	[paːta]	'face'
Basque		harrapatu	[(h)arapatu]	'to catch'
Bengali	Eastern	পানি	[paniː]	'water'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali 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
Catalan[2]		parlar	[pərˈɫa]	'to speak'	See Catalan phonology
Chuvash		путене	[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		पल / پرچم‎	[pəl]	'moment'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
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]	'nose'
South Korean		빛 / bit	[pit̚]	'light'	See South 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'
Maltese		aptit	[apˈtit]	'appetite'
Marathi		पाऊस/paa'uus/pā'ūs	[pɑːˈuːs]	'rain'	See Marathi phonology
Mutsun		po·čor	[poːt͡ʃor]	'a sore'
Nepali		पिता	[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]	'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'

• List of phonetics topics

• List of languages with [p] on PHOIBLE