Voiced labiodental approximant
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʋ⟩ in IPA
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A voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is something between an English /w/ and /v/, pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter V. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is â¨Êâ©, a letter v with a leftward hook protruding from the upper right of the letter. In some sources, this letter indicates a bilabial approximant,[1][2] though this is more accurately transcribed with an advanced diacritic, â¨ÊÌâ©.
| Voiced labiodental approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ê | |||
| IPA number | 150 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʋ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+028B | ||
| X-SAMPA | P or v\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
A labiodental approximant is the typical realization of /v/ in the Indian South African variety of English. As the voiceless /f/ is also realized as an approximant ([ÊÌ¥]), it is also an example of a language contrasting voiceless and voiced labiodental approximants.[3]
Features
Features of a voiced labiodental 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.
- Its place of articulation is labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
- 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.
- Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the medianâlateral 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ãiwoo | nyiveli | [ɲiÊeli] | 'garden land'[4] | ||
| Armenian | Eastern[5] | Õ¸Õ½Õ¯Õ« | [ÊÉski] | 'gold' | |
| Assyrian | ÜÜÜ / hawa | [hÉËÊÉ] | 'wind' | Predominant in the Urmia dialects. For some speakers, [v] is used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties. | |
| Catalan | Balearic | fava | [ËfÉÊÉ] | 'bean' | Allophone of /v/.[6] See Catalan phonology |
| Valencian[6] | |||||
| Chinese | Mandarin | çº | [weÌi]
[Êêi] |
'for' | Prevalent in northern dialects. Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. See Mandarin Phonology |
| Chuvash | аван | [aÊ'an] | 'good, well' | Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. | |
| Dhivehi | ÞÞ¦Þ Þª / valhu | [ÊaÉu] | 'well' (noun) | See Dhivehi Phonology | |
| Danish | Standard[7] | véd | [ÊeÌËËÃ°Ì ËË ] | 'know(s)' | Realization of the phoneme /v/; may also be realized as [Ê̯].[8] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | wang | â | 'cheek' | Realised as bilabial in southern european dialects [βÌ]. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Indian[3] | vine | [Êaɪ̯n] | 'vine' | Corresponds to a fricative [v] in other accents. |
| Some Cockney speakers | rine | 'rine' | Mostly idiosyncratic but somewhat dialectal[9] (especially in London and South East England). See English phonology and R-labialization | ||
| Faroese[10] | røða | [ËɹøËÊa] | 'speech' | Word-initial and intervocalic allophone of /v/. In the first case, it is in a free variation with a fricative [v].[10] See Faroese phonology | |
| Finnish | vauva | [ËÊÉu̯ÊÉ] | 'baby' | See Finnish phonology | |
| German | Swiss | was | [Êas] | 'what' | Corresponds to /v/ in Standard German.[11] |
| Guaranà | avañe'ẽ | [ÊãÊÌãɲẽËÊẽ] | 'Guaranà language' | Contrasts with /w/ and /É°/ | |
| Hawaiian | wikiwiki | [ÊikiÊiki] | 'fast' | May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hawaiian phonology | |
| Hindustani | Hindi | वाला | [ÊÉËlÉË] | (the) 'one' | Also an allophone of /v/ and /w/. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Urdu | ÙاÙا | ||||
| Italian | Some speakers[12] | raro | [ËÊäËÊo] | 'rare' | Rendition alternative to the standard Italian alveolar trill [r], due to individual orthoepic defects and/or regional variations that make the alternative sound more prevalent, notably in South Tyrol (among the Italian-speaking minority), Val d'Aosta (bordering with France) and in parts of the Parma province, more markedly around Fidenza. Other alternative sounds may be a uvular trill [Ê] or a voiced uvular fricative [Ê].[12] See Italian phonology. |
| Icelandic[13] | lofa | â | 'intr. to promise/ tr. to praise' | Weakly articulated, traditionally described as a fricative /v/ (which it is in free variation with).[13][14] See Icelandic phonology | |
| Lao | ວີ / wi | [ÊÃË] | 'hand fan' | May also be realized as [w]. See Lao phonology. | |
| Khmer | á¢á¶áá»á / avÅth | [ÊÉËÊut] | 'weapon' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Malayalam | വല/vala | [ÊÉlÉ] | 'net' | See Malayalam phonology | |
| Marathi | वà¤à¤¨ | [ÊÉ(d)zÉn] | 'weight' | See Marathi phonology | |
| Miyako[15] | [ÊÌ©tÉ] | 'thick' | May be syllabic. | ||
| Norwegian | Urban East[16][17] | [a] verbo | â | 'verb's principal parts' | Sometimes realized as a fricative [v].[17][18] See Norwegian phonology |
| Nsenga | ŵanthu | [Êaâ¿tÊ°u] | 'people' | ||
| Punjabi | Gurmukhi | ਵਾਲ | [ÊäËl] | 'hair' | Also an allophone of /v/ and /w/. |
| Shahmukhi | Ùا٠| ||||
| Russian[19] | вода | â | 'water' | Common realization of /v/; contrasts with palatalized form.[19] See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian | веÑÐ°Ñ / vetar | â | 'wind' | /v/ is a phonetic fricative, although it has less frication than /f/. However, it does not interact with unvoiced consonants in clusters as a fricative would, and so is considered to be phonologically a sonorant (approximant).[20][21] See Serbo-Croatian Phonology | |
| Shona | vanhu | [Êan̤u] | 'people' | Contrasts with /v/ and /w/. | |
| Sinhala | à·à¶à·à¶» | [Êat̪urÉ] | 'water' | ||
| Slovak[22] | vietor | â | 'wind' | Usual realization of /v/.[22] See Slovak phonology | |
| Slovene[23] | veter | [ËÊéËt̪ÉÌɾ] | 'wind' | Also described as fricative [v].[24][25] See Slovene phonology | |
| Spanish[26] | Chilean | hablar | [äÊËläɾ] | 'to speak' | Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology |
| Swedish | Some speakers | valvet | â | 'the vault' | See Swedish phonology |
| Tamil | வாய௠| [ÊÉj] | 'mouth' | See Tamil phonology | |
| Telugu | వల | [Êala] | 'net' | ||
| Ukrainian[27] | ÐаÑвÑнкове | â | 'Barvinkove' | Possible prevocalic realization of /w/, most commonly before /i/.[27] See Ukrainian phonology | |
| West Frisian | wêr | [ÊÉËr] | 'where' | See West Frisian phonology | |
See also
- List of phonetics topics
- R-labialization
- Rhotacism (speech impediment): pronouncing â¨râ© as [Ê]