Bilabial flap

The bilabial flap is an uncommon non-rhotic flap. It is usually, and perhaps always, an allophone of the labiodental flap, though it is the preferred allophone in a minority of languages such as Banda and some of its neighbors.

In the literature it has often been transcribed by a w modified by the extra-short diacritic, $\langle\rangle$. (Since flaps are similar to brief stops, it could alternatively be transcribed as $\langle\rangle$, but this could lead to interference between the diacritic and the ascender of the base character.)

In 2005 the International Phonetic Association adopted the right hook v symbol to represent the labiodental flap. Since then, the received transcription of the bilabial flap involves employing the labiodental flap symbol modified by an advanced diacritic: $\langle\rangle$.