Voiceless labiodental affricate
Consonantal sound
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A voiceless labiodental affricate ([p̪Íf] in IPA) is a rare affricate consonant that is initiated as a labiodental stop [p̪] and released as a voiceless labiodental fricative [f].
The XiNkuna dialect of Tsonga has this affricate, as in [tiɱp̪͡fuβu] "hippopotamuses" and aspirated [ɱp̪͡fÊ°uka] "distance" (compare [ɱfutsu] "tortoise", which shows that the stop is not epenthetic), as well as a voiced labiodental affricate, [b̪͡v], as in [Êileb̪͡vu] "chin". There is no voiceless labiodental fricative [f] in this dialect of Tsonga, only a voiceless bilabial fricative, as in [ɸu] "finished". (Among voiced fricatives, both [β] and [v] occur, however.)
German has a similar sound /pÍ¡f/ in Pfeffer /ËpÍ¡fÉfÉ/ ('pepper') and Apfel /ËapÍ¡fÉl/ ('apple'). Phonotactically, this sound does not occur after long vowels, diphthongs or /l/. It differs from a true labiodental affricate in that it starts out bilabial, but then the lower lip retracts slightly for the frication.
In many varieties of Central Plains Mandarin and Lanyin Mandarin, labialized retroflex fricatives and affricates [ÊÊ·][tÊÊ·][tÊÊ°Ê·] (sometimes including [ÊÊ·~ɻʷ]) become labiodental, respectively resulting in the production of [f][p̪͡f][p̪͡fÊ°] (sometimes including [v]).
The sound occurs occasionally in English, in words where one syllable ends with "p" and the next starts with "f", like in "helpful" or "stepfather".
Features
Features of a voiceless labiodental affricate:
- Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
- There are two variants of the stop component:
- bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips. The affricate with this stop component is called bilabial-labiodental.
- labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
- The fricative component of this affricate is labiodental, articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
- 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 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burushaski[1] | iphusimi | [ip̪͡fusimi] | 'he ties him' | In free variation with /pʰ/. May also be realized as /f/. | |
| English | Some speakers | helpful | [ËhÉÉ«pÌËp̪͡fÉÉ«] | 'helpful' | Occurs for some speakers in consonant clusters of /pf/ |
| info | [ËɪɱËp̪͡fÉÊ̯] | 'info' | Allophone of /f/ after nasal consonants for some speakers as a form of epenthesis; usually occurs during fast and casual speech. | ||
| German | Standard[2] | Pfirsiche | â | 'peaches' | Bilabial-labiodental.[2] Arisen as a reflex of /p/ in the 8th century High German sound shift.[3] See Standard German phonology |
| Swiss dialects[4][5] | Soipfe | [ËzÌ¥oi̯pÍ¡fÉ] | 'soap' | Bilabial-labiodental. The example word is from the Zürich dialect. | |
| Ghomalaʼ | [example needed] | ||||
| Italian | Some central-south dialects[6] | infatti | [iɱËp̪͡fät̪Ìt̪i] | 'indeed' | Labiodental, allophone of /f/ after nasals.[6] See Italian phonology |
| Luxembourgish[7] | Kampf | [ËkÊ°ÉmpÍ¡f] | 'fight' | Occurs only in Standard German loanwords.[7] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Ngiti[8] | pfÉÌmvÉ | [p̪͡fÉÌɱ(b̪)vÉÌ] | 'water spirit' | Less commonly [p͡ɸ][9] | |
| Kinyarwanda | gupfundikira | [gup̪͡fu:ndiciɾa] | 'to close, seal' | ||
| Central Plains Mandarin | Guanzhong dialect | çª/豬 zhÅ« | [p̪͡fú²¹] | 'pig' | The labialized retroflex fricatives and affricates in Old Mandarin became labiodental.[10] Possible route: [tÊÊ·]>[tf]>[p̪͡f]. |
| Yanhe dialect | ç /ç£ zhuÄn | [p̪͡fã²â´] | 'brick' | ||
| Dungan Language | ç©¿ ÑÑaн | [p̪͡fʰæ̲â´] | 'to wear' | ||
| Slovene | pfenig | [Ëp̪féËnìk] | 'pfennig' | Rarely occurs, mostly in German loanwords. See Slovene phonology | |
| Sopvoma[11] | ÅpfÇ | [oÌ˧p̪͡foÌ˦] | 'father' | Aspirated [p̪͡fÊ°] in some words, in free variation. "Ç" represents a "Higher Mid" tone between the Mid and Lower High tones found in some speakers. | |
| Tsonga | XiNkuna dialect | timpfuvu | [tiɱp̪͡fuβu] | 'hippopotami' | Contrasts with aspirated form. |