Labial

Most labial plosives in English are bilabial, [p b]. Occasionally they may be labiodental. This might not be a straightforward labiodental closure, but rather a bilabial closure during which time the upper teeth are resting on the inside of the lower lip. This kind of production can come in sequences such as [b] + [v], e.g. ‘obvious’. These plosives take longer to release, since there is more contact between the upper and lower articulators than if the closure were purely bilabial. There is no separate IPA symbol for labiodental plosives, but the symbols [p b] can be modified with the ‘dental’ diacritic , giving  , or perhaps .