Voiceless labiodental fricative
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨f⟩ in IPA
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A voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in a number of spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "f" sound in "face". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨f⟩.
| Voiceless labiodental fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| f | |||
| IPA number | 128 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | f | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0066 | ||
| X-SAMPA | f | ||
| Braille | |||
| |||
Features
Features of a voiceless labiodental fricative:
- Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
- Its place of articulation is labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
- Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
- It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the median–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhaz | фы/fy | [fə] | 'lightning' | See Abkhaz phonology | |
| Adyghe | тфы/tfy | ⓘ | 'five' | Corresponds to [xʷ] in Kabardian and Proto-Circassian | |
| Albanian | faqe | [facɛ] | 'cheek' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard[1] | ظرف/th'arf | [ðˤɑrf] | 'envelope' | See Arabic phonology |
| Armenian | Eastern[2] | ֆուտբոլ/futbol | ⓘ | 'football' | |
| Assyrian | ܦܬܐ pata | [fɔθɔ] | 'face' | Used mostly by Western speakers; corresponds to /p/ in most other dialects. | |
| Assamese | বৰফ/borof | [bɔɹɔf] | 'snow/ice' | ||
| Azeri | tüfəng | [t̪y̆fæɲɟ] | 'ɡun' | ||
| Basque | fin | [fin] | 'thin' | ||
| Bengali | ফ়্যান | [fæn] | 'fan' | Allophone of /pʰ/. See Bengali phonology | |
| Catalan[3] | fort | [ˈfɔɾt] | 'strong' | See Catalan phonology | |
| Chechen | факс / faks | [faks] | 'fax' | Used only in loanwords. There is no /f/ in Chechen; /f/ was replaced by /p/ in loanwords that contained it before increased influence from the Russian language popularized the usage of /f/. | |
| Chinese | Cantonese | 飛 / fēi | ⓘ | 'to fly' | See Cantonese phonology |
| Mandarin | 飛 (traditional) / 飞(simplified) / fēi | ⓘ | See Mandarin phonology | ||
| Coptic | ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ/ftoow | [ftow] | 'four' | ||
| Czech | foukat | ⓘ | 'to blow' | See Czech phonology | |
| Dutch[4] | fiets | [fiːts] | 'bike' | See Dutch phonology | |
| English | All dialects | fill | ⓘ | 'fill' | See English phonology |
| Cockney[5] | think | [fɪŋk] | 'think' | Socially marked,[6] with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects).[7] See th-fronting. | |
| Many British urban dialects[8] | |||||
| Some younger East Anglian English | |||||
| Some younger New Zealanders[9][10] | |||||
| Broad South African[11] | myth | [mɨf] | 'myth' | Possible realization of /θ/, more common word-finally. See White SAE phonology. | |
| Esperanto | fajro | [ˈfajɾo] | 'fire' | See Esperanto phonology | |
| Ewe[12] | eflen | [éflé̃] | 'he spit off' | ||
| French[13] | fabuleuse | [fäbyˈløːz̪] | 'fabulous' | See French phonology | |
| Galician | faísca | [faˈiska] | 'spark' | See Galician phonology | |
| German | fade | [ˈfaːdə] | 'bland' | See Standard German phonology | |
| Goemai | f'at' | [fat] | 'to blow' | ||
| Greek | φύση / fysī | [ˈfisi] | 'nature' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Gujarati | ફળ / faļ | [fəɭ] | 'fruit' | See Gujarati phonology | |
| Hebrew | סופר/sofer | [so̞fe̞ʁ] | 'writer' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
| Hindustani | साफ़ / صاف/saaf | [sɑːf] | 'clean' | See Hindustani phonology | |
| Hmong | 𖬌𖬜𖬵 / foob | [fõ˦] | 'to sue, to indict' | ||
| Hungarian | figyel | [ˈfiɟɛl] | 'he/she pays attention' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Indonesian | sifat | [ˈsifät̪̚] | 'characteristic' | ||
| Italian | fantasma | [fän̪ˈt̪äzmä] | 'ghost' | See Italian phonology | |
| Kabardian | фыз/fyz | ⓘ | 'woman' | Corresponds to [ʂʷ] in Adyghe and Proto-Circassian | |
| Kabyle | afus | [afus] | |||
| Kazakh | faqır / фақыр | [faqr] | 'poor' | ||
| Khmer | កាហ្វេ / kahvé | [kaːfeː] | 'coffee' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Macedonian | фонетика/fonetika | [fɔnetika] | 'phonetics' | See Macedonian phonology | |
| Māori | whakapapa | [fakapapa] | 'genealogy' | Less commonly [ɸ]. See Māori phonology. | |
| Malay | feri | [feri] | 'ferry' | Only occurs in loanwords | |
| Malayalam | ഫലം/falam | [fɐlɐm] | 'fruit, result' | Only occurs in loanwords in the standard version. ഫ is used to represent both /pʰ/ and /f/ but nowadays most people pronounce /pʰ/ as [f]. Occurs in native words in the Jeseri dialect. See Malayalam phonology | |
| Maltese | fenek | [fenek] | 'rabbit' | ||
| Norwegian | filter | [filtɛɾ] | 'filter' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Persian | فروخت/foruxt | [foɹu:xt] | 'he/she sold' | See Persian phonology | |
| Polish[14] | futro | ⓘ | 'fur' | See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese[15] | fala | [ˈfalɐ] | 'speech' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Punjabi | ਫ਼ੌਜੀ/faujī | [fɔːd͡ʒi] | 'soldier' | ||
| Romanian[16] | foc | [fo̞k] | 'fire' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Russian[17] | орфография/orfografiya | [ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə] | 'orthography' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology | |
| Scottish Gaelic[18] | faisg | [faʃkʲ] | 'near, close' | Loosely articulated, can resemble [ɸ]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian[19] | фаза / faza | [fǎːz̪ä] | 'phase' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
| Slovak | fúkať | [ˈfu̞ːkäc] | 'to blow' | See Slovak phonology | |
| Slovene | Standard | flavta | [ˈfláːu̯t̪à] | 'flute' | See Slovene phonology |
| Some dialects | vsi | [ˈfs̪î] | 'all (people)' | Allophone of /v/ before voiceless obstruents in dialects with /ʋ/ → /v/ development. See Slovene phonology | |
| Somali | feex | [fɛħ] | 'wart' | See Somali phonology | |
| Spanish[20] | fantasma | [fã̠n̪ˈt̪a̠zma̠] | 'ghost' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Swahili | kufa | [kufɑ] | 'to die' | ||
| Swedish | fisk | [ˈfɪsk] | 'fish' | See Swedish phonology | |
| Thai | ฝน/fon | [fon˩˩˦] | 'rain' | ||
| Toda | nes̲of | [nes̲of] | 'moon' | ||
| Turkish | saf | [ˈs̟ɑf] | 'pure' | See Turkish phonology | |
| Ukrainian[21] | Фастів/fastiv | [ˈfɑsʲtʲiw] | 'Fastiv' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Vietnamese[22] | pháo | [faːw˧ˀ˥] | 'firecracker' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
| Welsh | ffon | [fɔn] | 'stick' | See Welsh phonology | |
| West Frisian | fol | [foɫ] | 'full' | See West Frisian phonology | |
| Yi | ꃚ / fu | [fu˧] | 'roast' | ||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[23] | cafe | [kafɘ] | 'coffee' | Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish |
Voiceless labiodental approximant
A voiceless labiodental approximant is a similar sound with less frication. It is transcribed in IPA as ⟨ʋ̥⟩.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Indian South African[24] | fair | [ʋ̥eː] | 'fair' | Described as an approximant. Corresponds to [f] in other accents. |
