Labialization

Labialization is a <a href="/facts/Secondary_articulation/EmBEgm59">secondary articulatory</a> feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the <a href="/facts/Human_mouth/NJY6GYoA">oral cavity</a> produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to <a href="/facts/Consonant/81X2SGS6">consonants</a>. When vowels involve the lips, they are called <a href="/facts/Roundedness/2NImak2G">rounded</a>.
The most common labialized consonants are <a href="/facts/Labialized_velar_consonant/VVUIqtF0">labialized velars</a>. Most other labialized sounds also have simultaneous <a href="/facts/Velarization/r0vmyV4T">velarization</a>, and the process may then be more precisely called labio-velarization. The "labialization" of bilabial consonants often refers to protrusion instead of a secondary articulatory feature <a href="/facts/Velarization/r0vmyV4T">velarization</a>. [pʷ] doesn't mean [pˠ] although [w] refers to a <a href="/facts/Labial%E2%80%93velar_approximant/HLDqbrvr">labial–velar approximant</a>. 
In <a href="/facts/Phonology/qWAsvnok">phonology</a>, labialization may also refer to a type of <a href="/facts/Assimilation_(linguistics)/YxIy0MBv">assimilation</a> process.

Labialization open-in-new

Labialization