The voiceless labial–velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is a and pronounced simultaneously and is considered a double articulation. To make this sound, one can say Coe but with the lips closed as if one were saying Poe; the lips are to be released at the same time as or a fraction of a second after the C of Coe. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨k͡p⟩. The voiceless labial–velar plosive is found in Vietnamese and various languages in West and Central Africa. In Yoruba it is written with a simple ⟨p⟩.

Features

Features of the voiceless labial–velar stop:

Occurrence

Rounded variant

Some languages, especially in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu, combine this voiceless labial–velar stop with a labial–velar approximant release, hence. Thus Mwotlap (Banks Islands, north Vanuatu) has ('my father-in-law'). In the Banks Islands languages which have it, the phoneme is written ⟨q⟩ in local orthographies. In other languages of Vanuatu further south (such as South Efate, or Lenakel), the same segment is spelled ⟨p̃⟩.