Labiovelarization

Labiovelarization is a phonetic feature in which a sound is produced with both lip rounding (labialization) and tongue body retraction toward the velum (velarization). It can appear as a primary articulation in a phoneme inventory or as a secondary articulation superimposed on another segment, yielding labiovelarized consonants or vowels.

In practice, labiovelarization is most often discussed with consonants. A labiovelar stop or fricative is articulated with the lips rounded while the back of the tongue is positioned toward the velum, yielding segments such as pʷ, tʷ, kʷ, or sʷ in transcription. This can be analyzed as a single phoneme with a labiovelar place of articulation or as a combination of two articulatory gestures occurring together. For vowels, descriptions of labiovelarization are less common, but some analyses treat certain rounded vowels as involving a simultaneous velar tongue configuration and lip rounding.

Notationally, labialization is indicated by a superscript [ʷ] on the consonant or vowel, while velarization is marked with a diacritic such as [ˠ] or, in some descriptions, by a dedicated symbol. Labiovelarized segments may be written as kʷ, pʷ, tʷ, etc., or described with a velarized plus rounded articulation in phonetic analysis.

Throughout languages, labiovelarization may be phonemic in some systems or arise as an allophonic consequence of surrounding vowels or consonants. It is a relatively specialized feature and is less widespread than simple labialization or velarization alone.