Only a few languages contrast voiced and voiceless bilabial trills phonemically – e.g. Mangbetu of Congo and Ninde of Vanuatu.[2][3]
There is also a very rare voiceless alveolar bilabially trilled affricate, [t̪͡ʙ̥] (written ⟨tᵖ̃⟩ in Everett & Kern) reported from Pirahã and from a few words in the Chapacuran languagesWariʼ and Oro Win. The sound also appears as an allophone of the labialized voiceless alveolar stop/tʷ/ of Abkhaz and Ubykh, but in those languages it is more often realised by a doubly articulated stop[t͡p]. In the Chapacuran languages, [tʙ̥] is reported almost exclusively before rounded vowels such as [o] and [y].
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
^Rangelov, Tihomir. 2019. The bilabial trills of Ahamb (Vanuatu): Acoustic and articulatory properties. In S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain and P. Warren (eds),Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. Canberra, Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.: 1292-1296.
^See pp.33-34 of: Barbour, Julie (2012). A Grammar of Neverver. Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN9783110289619.
^de Souza, Isaac Costa (2010). "3"(PDF). A Phonological Description of "Pet Talk" in Arara (MA). SIL Brazil. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2014-01-09.