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(9) Sample lexical items in Mbum containing the labial flap (Hagège 1968, Hino
1978)
nouns verbs
L= L= L= L= ‘lower jaw’ L= L= L= L= ‘to divide, distribute’
L=J= L=J= ‘cross’ L= L= L= L= ~ DK DK DK DK ‘to become fat’
LA LA LA LA ‘god’ L=H L=H D=(= D=(= D=(= D=(= ‘to separate, say goodbye’
LE=> LE=> LE=> LE=> ‘fountain’ LA LA ‘strangle, kill by cutting one’s throat’
L L L L ‘witchcraft’ LE LE ‘ask’
L( L( L( L( ‘overturn’
LK( LK( ~ K( K( K( K( ‘throw’
LK( LK( LK( LK( ‘apply ointment’
pronouns ideophones
L L ‘you’ L L H H H H ‘round and round’
5. Mangbetu. The final language we examine in detail is Mangbetu, a Central
Sudanic language found in northeastern DRC.
First, the labial flap is contrastive with the other labial sounds in Mangbetu.
Contrasts are listed in (10):
(10) Contrast with other labial sounds in Mangbetu (Demolin 1992)
labial labial-velar
stops FE FE FE FE ‘forest’ F F F F ‘little basket’
>K >K >K >K ‘to apply mud C>MC>K C>MC>K C>MC>K C>MC>K ‘to nail’
to house’
AE> AE> AE> AE> ‘seed’
AC>C>
AC>C> AC>C>
AC>C> ‘heavy’
implosives ‘to cut’
fricatives B B B B ‘to cut’
L L L L ‘metal stick’
nasals ‘illness’
L L L L ‘armpit’
trills &K &K &K &K ‘to put out’
K K K K ‘hammock’
‘type of hornbill’
flap L L L L ‘to scratch’
LE LE LE LE ‘to jump’
approximant M M M M ‘a growing mushroom’
Demolin (1992) considers [] to be an allophone of />/. Second, the sound is
comparatively well-attested in Mangbetu, occurring in at least 23 words, a sampling of
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