• reddig33@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    That’s what I thought too, but if you google it, w sound is classified as “open mouth” sound by the experts. To me it feels like lips vibrating as sound and breath come through (lips open/close/open as they vibrate).

    • oppy1984@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      I guess we’re all different, my lips definitely touched when saying one. There’s got to be an outlier for everything I guess.

    • hakase@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      “Open sounds” (which, I assume, refers to continuants) and bilabial sounds aren’t mutually exclusive.

      When you pronounce the /w/ at the beginning of “one”, your lips round (purse) and touch each other at the corners, but they don’t form a full closure. So, the oral tract is still open, but the articulators (moving mouth parts) are still touching.

      This could be reworded as “the middle of your lips don’t touch each other”, but multiple commenters are correct in that your lips absolutely do touch each other when you say “one” in English.