Labializing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of producing a speech sound with rounded lips; the process of adding lip rounding to a consonant or vowel; the phonetic modification involving lip articulation during sound production
2. The articulation technique where lip rounding influences a sound's pronunciation; the modification of a sound by shaping the lips; the linguistic process adding labial features to a phoneme
3. The speech act of shaping sounds by rounding the lips; the phonological addition of lip movement to modify consonants or vowels; the production of labialized sounds through lip positioning

Etymology: "Labializing" is the present participle and gerund of "labialize," which combines "labial" with the causative suffix "-ize." The base word "labial" comes from Latin "labium," meaning "lip," and the suffix "-ize" (from Greek "-izein") turns a quality into an action, so "labialize" means to make something lip-like or to give a sound a lip quality. In phonetics, that action is precise. Rounding the lips while producing a sound changes its character, which is why English "w" and the vowel of "boot" are described as labialized, and why the verb is used to name the process itself. Linguists also speak of a labialized consonant, meaning one produced with added lip rounding on top of its main articulation.

Synonyms: lip-rounding

Antonyms: delabializing