Delabialised

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Pronounced without rounding the lips, typically describing a speech sound where labialization is removed
2. Characterized by the absence of lip rounding during articulation, especially concerning phonetic sounds
3. Referring to sounds or speech that do not involve the lips being rounded or protruded

Etymology: "Delabialised" is built from "de-", a prefix meaning "reversal or removal" (from Latin "de"), plus "labialise," the verb for giving a sound lip-rounding. "Labialise" comes from the Latin "labium," meaning "lip," which also gave English "labial." The pattern is the same as "de-" words such as "decaffeinate" or "deforest": the base word describes a process, and the prefix undoes it. In phonetics, labialisation is a secondary articulation in which the lips are rounded while another sound is made. Vowels such as the "oo" in "food" are typically rounded, while the "ee" in "see" is not. Removing that rounding turns a rounded vowel into an unrounded one, so a rounded "oo" pronounced with spread lips becomes a "delabialised" vowel. The term was coined by linguists who needed a precise label for this reversal, rather than a word that has been used since ancient times.

Synonyms: unrounded, unlabialized, de-rounded

Antonyms: labialized, rounded