Voiceless labial–velar fricative

A voiceless labial–velar fricative, sometimes analyzed as a voiceless labial–velar approximant, is a type of consonantal sound, used in spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, or occasionally Template:Angbr IPA. The letter Template:Angbr IPA was defined as a "voiceless Template:IPAblink" until 1979, when it was defined as a fricative with the place of articulation of Template:IPAblink the same way that is an approximant with the place of articulation of Template:IPAblink. The IPA Handbook describes Template:Angbr IPA as a "fricative" in the introduction, while a chapter within characterizes it as an "approximant".

There was once some controversy over whether a voiceless approximant could be distinct from a fricative,Template:Sfnp but more recent research distinguishes between turbulent (fricative-like) and laminar (vowel- or approximant-like) airflow in the vocal tract.Template:Sfnp English is an approximant , a labialized glottal fricative , or an sequence, not a velar fricative.Template:Sfnp Scots has been described as a velar fricative,Template:Sfnp especially in older Scots, where it was .Template:Sfnp Ladefoged and Maddieson were unable to confirm that any language has fricatives produced at two places of articulation, as the term "labial–velar" implies.Template:Sfnp They conclude that "if [ʍ] is a fricative, it is better described as a voiceless labialized velar fricative".Template:Sfnp

Features

Features of a voiceless labial–velar fricative:

Occurrence

Family	Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Eskimo-Aleut	Aleut	Atkan			'smoke'
		Bering
Celtic	Cornish	SWF			'you all'
Germanic	English	Conservative Received Pronunciation	whine		'whine'	English is generally a labialized velar approximant.Template:Sfnp It is usually represented phonemically as , but phonetically it is not a sequence of Template:IPAblink plus (see English phonology). In General AmericanTemplate:Sfnp and New Zealand EnglishTemplate:Sfnp only some speakers maintain a distinction with ; in Europe, mostly heard in Irish and Scottish accents. See English phonology and phonological history of wh.
		Cultivated South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp
		Conservative General AmericanTemplate:Sfnp
		IrishTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
		ScottishTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
		Southern AmericanTemplate:Sfnp
		New ZealandTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
Athabaskan	Hupa				'his property'	A voiceless labialized velar fricative.
Sino-Tibetan	Kham	Gamale Kham			'tooth'	Described as an approximant.Template:Sfnp
Northwest Caucasian	Kabardian			Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'five'	In Adyghe, it is pronounced Template:IPAblink.
Iranian	Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	/		'sister'
		Kalhori (Southern)	/		'nice'
Salishan	Lushootseed				'Newhalem, Washington'
Iranian	Persian	Classical Persian	/		'to want'	In modern standard dialects of Persian, the pronunciation has evolved to a simple Voiceless velar fricative (Template:IPAblink) sound.
Salishan	Shuswap				'Shuswap language'
Slavic	SloveneTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'everything'	Allophone of Template:IPAslink in the syllable onset before voiceless consonants, in free variation with a vowel Template:IPAblink. Voiced Template:IPAblink before voiced consonants.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Slovene phonology.
Romance	Spanish	Fast speech	juego		'game'	More commonly [xw]. See Spanish phonology
Washo (isolate)				or	'he's the one who's doing it'	Variously described as a labialized velar fricative or a voiceless approximant.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Hwair
• Wh (digraph)
• Wine–whine merger

References

• Template:Accents of English

External links

• Template:Phoible
• Template:Phoible