Voiceless bilabial fricative
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɸ⟩ in IPA
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A voiceless bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɸ⟩, a Latinized form of the Greek letter Phi.
| Voiceless bilabial fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɸ | |||
| IPA number | 126 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɸ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0278 | ||
| X-SAMPA | p\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
Features
Features of a voiceless bilabial 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 bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
- Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
- 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 speech sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ainu[citation needed] | フチ | [ɸu̜tʃi] | 'grandmother' | Allophone of /h/ before /u/ | |
| Angor[citation needed] | fi | [ɸi] | 'body' | ||
| Bahuana | [dʌŭɸʌŭ] | 'mouth' | [1] | ||
| Bengali | Eastern dialects | ফল | [ɸɔl] | 'fruit' | Allophone of /f/ in some eastern dialects; regular allophone of /pʰ/ in western dialects |
| Damin | fiwi | [ɸiwi] | 'boomerang' | ||
| English | Scouse | [example needed] | Allophone of /p/. See British English phonology[2] | ||
| Ewe[3] | éƒá | [éɸá] | 'he polished' | Contrasts with /f/ | |
| Italian | Tuscan[4] | i capitani | [iˌhäɸiˈtäːni] | 'the captains' | Postvocalic allophone of /p/.[4] See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia. |
| Itelmen | чуфчуф | [tʃuɸtʃuɸ] | 'rain' | ||
| Japanese[5] | 腐敗 / fuhai | [ɸɯhai] | 'decay' | Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Japanese phonology | |
| Kaingang | fy | [ɸɨ] | 'seed' | ||
| Korean | 후두개 / hudugae | [ɸʷudugɛ] | 'epiglottis' | Allophone of /h/ before /u/ and /w/. See Korean phonology | |
| Kwama[citation needed] | [kòːɸɛ́] | 'basket' | |||
| Māori | whakapapa | [ɸakapapa] | 'genealogy' | Now more commonly /f/ due to the influence of English. See Māori phonology. | |
| Nepali | बाफ | [bäɸ] | 'vapour' | Allophone of /pʰ/. See Nepali phonology | |
| Odoodee[citation needed] | pagai | [ɸɑɡɑi] | 'coconut' | ||
| Okinawan | fifaci | [ɸiɸatɕi] | 'type of spice' | ||
| Spanish | Some dialects [6][7] | fuera | ⓘ | 'outside' | Non-standard variant of /f/. See Spanish phonology |
| North-Central Peninsular[8] | abdicar | [a̠ɸðiˈka̠ɾ] | 'abdicate' | Allophone of /b/ in the coda. In this dialect, the unvoiced coda obstruents - /p, t, k/ - are realized as fricatives only if they precede a voiced consonant; otherwise, they emerge as stops. | |
| Southern Peninsular[9] | los vuestros | [lɔh ˈɸːwɛhtːɾɔh] | 'yours' | It varies with [βː] in some accents. Allophone of /b/ after /s/. | |
| Shompen[10] | kofeoi | [koɸeoi] | 'bench' | ||
| Sylheti | ꠙꠥꠀ/fua | [ɸua] | 'boy' | ||
| Tahitian | ʻōfī | [ʔoːɸiː] | 'snake' | Allophone of /f/ | |
| Taruma[11] | fwa | [ɸʷa] | 'fire' | ||
| Turkish | Some speakers[12] | ufuk | ⓘ | 'horizon' | Allophone of /f/ before rounded vowels and, to a lesser extent, word-finally after rounded vowels.[12] See Turkish phonology |
| Turkmen | fabrik | [ɸabrik] | 'factory' | ||
| Yalë | dife | [diɸe] | 'village' | ||
Voiceless bilabial approximant
A voiceless bilabial approximant is a similar sound with less turbulent airflow. The IPA has no dedicated symbol that represents this sound, but it may be transcribed as ⟨ɸ̞⟩ (a lowered [ɸ]), or equivalently ⟨ɸ˕⟩ (with the obsolete adjacent diacritic) to avoid clash with the ascender and descender.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kamasau[13] | ngape | [ˈŋɑɸ̞e] | 'bone' | Allophone of the voiceless bilabial phoneme, described by different authors as either /ɸ/ or /p/. In free variation with [b, p, pʰ, p̆, ɸ, ɸ̞], depending on the consonant position and dialect. | |
| Mazatec | Mazatlán[14] | [ɸ̞ī] | 'go' | Primary realization of /β̞/ when pre-aspirated. | |