bilateral (adj.)

A type of OPPOSITION recognized in PRAGUE SCHOOL PHONOLOGY, distinguished from MULTILATERAL. The opposition between English /t/ and /d/, for example, is bilateral, because these are the only UNITS in the SYSTEM which are ALVEOLAR/PLOSIVE, and they are differentiated by the single feature of VOICING; the opposition between, say, /t/ and /v/, however is multilateral, because there are other possibilities involving the same set of FEATURES, e.g. /d/ v. /f/.

A LATERAL sound in which air escapes around both sides of the tongue, as in the usual ARTICULATION of [l]; opposed to ‘unilateral’.