Voiced labial–velar approximant

Features of a voiced labial–velar approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream. The type of approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement (or 'glide') of /w/ from the /u/ vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic' (it does not form the nucleus of a syllable).
• Its place of articulation is labialized velar, which means it is articulated with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate (the velum) while rounding the lips. Some languages, such as Japanese and perhaps the Northern Iroquoian languages, have a sound typically transcribed as /w/ where the lips are compressed, or in some cases may not have labial features at all. Close transcriptions may avoid the symbol [w] in such cases and instead use [É°], or may use the under-rounding diacritic [w̜].
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• 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.

A nasalized voiced labial–velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is typically ⟨w̃⟩ (a nasalized ⟨w⟩), though for preciseness ⟨ɰ̃ʷ⟩ (a nasalized and labialized ⟨ɰ⟩) may also be seen.

• Voiceless labial–velar approximant
• Voiced bilabial approximant
• Voiced bilabial flap