Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
Research has shown that incidental learning positively impacts the acquisition of the /p/ sound for Arabic speakers and other EFL learners.[1][2] This is particularly interesting given that the stop /p/ is missing from about 10% of languages that have a /b/. (See voiced velar stop for another such gap.) This is an areal feature of the circum-Saharan zone (Africa north of the equator plus the Arabian Peninsula). It is not known how old this areal feature is, and whether it might be a recent phenomenon due to Arabic as a prestige language (Arabic shifted /p/ to /f/ but the timing of this change is not known), or whether Arabic was itself affected by a more ancient areal pattern.[2] It is found in other areas as well; for example, Fijian, Onge, and many Papuan languages have /b/ but no /p/.
Nonetheless, the /p/ sound is very common cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain /p/, and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between the aspirated/pʰ/ and the plain /p/ (also transcribed as [p˭] in extensions to the IPA).
Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨b̥⟩ or ⟨b⟩. It may be partially voiced [b] in the intervocalic position.[6][7] It contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨pʰ⟩ or ⟨p⟩. See Danish phonology
Less often voiced [b]. It is usually transcribed /b/, and contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /p/.[12] See Luxembourgish phonology
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Goblirsch, Kurt (2018), Gemination, Lenition, and Vowel Lengthening: On the History of Quantity in Germanic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN978-1-107-03450-1
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN978-0-52163751-0
Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID13470826
Puggaard-Rode, Rasmus; Horslund, Camilla Søballe; Jørgensen, Henrik (2022), "The rarity of intervocalic voicing of stops in Danish spontaneous speech", Laboratory Phonology, 13 (1), doi:10.16995/labphon.6449, hdl:1887/3304670
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