Dentolabial consonant

Dentolabial consonants are special sounds made when we press our lower teeth against our upper lip. In the study of sounds called phonetics, these are the opposite of labiodental sounds, which are made with the lips and teeth. These sounds are very rare in normal speaking, mostly because many people's teeth are not aligned in a way that makes them easy to produce.

Scientists who study speech use a special symbol to write these sounds. This symbol looks like a small bridge above the letter, such as ⟨m͆⟩ or ⟨f͆⟩. One example of a dentolabial sound is a special kind of "f" sound used in some dialects of the Greenlandic language. This shows how different languages can have unique ways of making sounds.

Dentolabial consonants in the extIPA

Dentolabial consonants are special sounds made by touching the lower teeth to the upper lip. They are rare in normal speech because it can be hard to make these sounds, especially for people with certain dental conditions.

The only dentolabial consonant found in normal speech is the voiceless dentolabial fricative [f͆]. Other complex dentolabial sounds like affricates are also possible.