Delabialize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To pronounce a sound with the lips spread or unrounded rather than rounded into a circle
2. To make a vowel or consonant articulated without lip rounding, as in producing an unrounded sound
3. Describing the act of unrounding the lips when producing a particular speech sound in phonetics

Etymology: "Delabialize" is a plain formation: the prefix "de-", meaning "away from" or "reversing", attached to "labialize." The prefix descends from Latin "dē," meaning "down from" or "away," which passed into English as an independent prefix, so the pattern is simple and transparent. "Labialize" is the older base. It comes from Latin "labium," meaning "lip," and in phonetics it names the rounding of the lips while a sound is produced, as in the vowel of "oo." To delabialize a sound is to undo that rounding, so the lips spread or unround instead. The verb therefore means exactly what its parts suggest: removing lip-rounding from a sound.

Synonyms: unround

Antonyms: labialize, round