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(7) Sample lexical items in Karang containing the labial flap
nouns ideophones
LK K K K ‘kind of grass’ L==C L==C L==C L==C ‘very’
L=H= L=H= ‘animal’ LEHE LEHE LEHE LEHE ‘whole’
L=M L=M ‘loudly’
verbs =L=M =L=M =L=M =L=M ‘out of sight’
LA LA ‘to cut’ FALALA FALALA FALALA FALALA ‘very high’
L L ‘to ask’ LKKK LKKK LKKK LKKK ‘like rushing water’
L L H H H H ‘to brew’
L L L L ‘to distinguish’
LK LK ‘to throw away’
LEH LEH ‘hard’
4. Mbum. Mbum is an Adamawan language spoken in Cameroon. Hagège (1970)
and Hino (1978) conducted field research in different towns (Nganha and Mbang-
Mboum, respectively), so there may be a slight dialectal difference between the two
sources.
First, the labial flap is contrastive with most other labial sounds in Mbum.
Contrasts are listed in (8):
(8) Contrast with other labial sounds in Mbum (Hagège 1970):
stops >= >= >= >= ‘clown’ L= L= L= L= ‘lower jaw’
>A( >A( >A( >A( ‘built’ L L L L ‘overturned’
implosives A A A A ‘stick’ LA LA LA LA ‘god’
fricatives BK( BK( ‘paid’ LK( LK( ‘threw’
LK( LK( ‘implored’ LK( LK( ‘threw’
L L L L ‘axe’ L L L L ‘witchcraft’
nasals H H H H ‘burned ground’ L L L L ‘witchcraft’
approximants M M M M ‘error’ L L L L ‘witchcraft’
Hagège (1970) does not give explicit examples of contrast between the labial flap
and p, kp, gb, and ngb. Second, the sound occurs in nouns, verbs, pronouns, and
ideophones, as shown in (9). Third, the sound is common, occurring in over fifteen
words. Fourth, the sound occurs most often in word-initial position, but it is attested in
word-medial position in words which can be derived from other lexical items (e.g. =(I =(I L LL L H H H H
‘circle’, =L =L =L =L
‘yourselves’).
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