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The labial consonants
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Labial is a cover term for both the bilabial and the labiodental way of articulation. The fricatives and oral stops show a division: the fricatives (v/f) are labiodental, the stops (b/p) are bilabial.

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The term 'labial' is a cover term for both the bilabial and the labiodental way of articulation. As to this, the fricatives and oral stops show a neat division of labour, in that the fricatives (v/f) are labiodental, while the stops (b/p) are bilabial. There are no bilabial fricatives in Frisian, whereas labiodental stops seem to be universally excluded. This might be explicable on physiological grounds: compressing one's lips causes a complete obstruction of the air stream − a characteristic property of stops −, whereas bringing one's lower lip into contact with one's upper teeth leaves room for the air stream to continue, a property typical of fricatives.

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The labiodental nasal [ɱ] does occur in Frisian, as in komfoar [koɱfoər] chafing dish and triomf [trijoɱf] triumph, and, as a syllabic segment, in moffen [mofɱ̩] gloves. It is, however, an allophone of /m/, not a phoneme.

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