Voiced labial–velar approximant
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨w⟩ in IPA
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A voiced labial–velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in certain spoken languages, including English. It is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨w⟩ in the English alphabet;[1] likewise, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨w⟩, or rarely [ɰʷ].[citation needed] In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of a close back rounded vowel [u]. In inventory charts of languages with other labialized velar consonants, /w/ will be placed in the same column as those consonants. When consonant charts have only labial and velar columns, /w/ may be placed in the velar column, labial column, or both. The placement may have more to do with convenience or phonological criteria than with phonetics.[2]
| Voiced labial–velar approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| w | |||
| ɰʷ | |||
| IPA number | 170 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | w | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0077 | ||
| X-SAMPA | w | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
For a labialized post-palatal approximant—sometimes also described as a voiced labial–prevelar approximant—which is more fronted in the place of articulation than a prototypical labial–velar approximant, see Labial–palatal approximant § Post-palatal.
Features
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 [ɰ], 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.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhaz | ауаҩы / awaẅy / აუაჳჷ | [awaˈɥə] | 'human' | See Abkhaz phonology | |
| Adyghe | о / o | [wɐ] | 'you (singular)' | See Adyghe phonology | |
| Alemannic | Bernese | Giel | [ɡ̊iə̯w] | 'boy' | Allophone of [l] |
| Arabic | Modern Standard[3] | وَرْد / ward | [ward] | 'rose' | See Arabic phonology |
| Assamese | ৱাশ্বিংটন / Washington | [wasiŋtɔn] | 'Washington' | ||
| Basque | lau | [law] | 'four' | ||
| Belarusian | воўк / voŭk | ⓘ | 'wolf' | See Belarusian phonology | |
| Bengali | ওয়াদা / wada | [wá̠d̪a̠ˑ] | 'promise' | Fortitional allophone of the semivowels [o̯] and [u̯], especially in loan words. See Bengali phonology | |
| Berber | ⴰⵡⴰⵍ / äwäl | [æwæl] | 'speech' | ||
| Breton | nav | [ˈnaw] | 'nine' | ||
| Bulgarian | Colloquial | лопата / lopata | [woˈpat̪ɐ] | 'shovel' | Contemporary pronunciation of /ɫ/, an ongoing sound change. See Bulgarian phonology. |
| Pernik dialects | This dialect has a long-standing tradition of pronouncing /ɫ/ as /w/, similar to the Polish language. Independent of the similar sound change happening in the standard language. | ||||
| Standard Bulgarian | уиски / uiski | [ˈwisk̟i] | 'whiskey' | Appears in borrowings. See Bulgarian phonology | |
| Burmese | ဝါဒ / wadạ | [wàda̰] | 'belief' | ||
| Catalan[4] | quart | [ˈkwɑɾt] | 'fourth' | Post-lexically after /k/ and /ɡ/. See Catalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Cantonese | 挖 / waat | ⓘ | 'dig' | See Cantonese phonology |
| Mandarin | 挖 / wā | ⓘ | See Mandarin phonology | ||
| Danish | hav | [hɑw] | 'ocean' | Allophone of [v] | |
| Dutch | Colloquial | kouwe | [ˈkʌu̯wə] | 'cold' | Lenited allophone of /d/ after /ʌu̯/. Corresponds to /d/ in the standard language (cf. koude). See Dutch phonology |
| Standard Surinamese | welp | [wɛɫp] | 'cub' | May also occur in this context in some continental Dutch accents and/or dialects.[5][6] Corresponds to [ʋ] in most of the Netherlands and to [β̞] in Belgium and (southern) parts of the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | weep | [wiːp] | 'weep' | See English phonology | |
| French[7] | oui | ⓘ | 'yes' | See French phonology | |
| German | Quelle | [kweːlə] | 'source' | Some regions [citation needed] | |
| Hawaiian[8] | wikiwiki | [wikiwiki] | 'fast' | May also be realized as [v]. See Hawaiian phonology | |
| Hebrew | Mizrahi | כּוֹחַ / kowaḥ | [ˈkowaħ] | 'power' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hindustani[9] | Hindi | विश्वास / viśvās | [ʋɪʃwäːs] | 'belief' | Allophone of /ʋ/. See Hindustani phonology |
| Urdu | وشواس / viśvās | ||||
| Irish | vóta | [ˈwoːt̪ˠə] | 'vote' | See Irish phonology | |
| Italian[10] | uomo | [ˈwɔːmo] | 'man' | See Italian phonology | |
| Kabardian | уэ / wə | ⓘ | 'you (singular)' | ||
| Karakalpak | туўыў / tuwıw | [tʰuˈwuw] | 'birth' | ||
| Kazakh | ауа / aua | [ɑ̝wɑ̝́] | 'air' | ||
| Korean | 왜가리 / waegari | [wɛɡɐɾi] | 'heron' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kyrgyz | аба / aba | [ɑ̀w̜ɑ] | 'air' | Lenited allophone of /b/. See Kyrgyz phonology | |
| Lao | ຫວານ / wan | [wǎːn] | 'sweet' | See Lao phonology | |
| Luxembourgish[11] | zwee | [t͡swe̝ː] | 'two' | Allophone of /v/ after /k, t͡s, ʃ/.[12] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | wang | [waŋ] | 'money' | ||
| Malayalam | ഉവ്വ / uvva | [uwːɐ] | 'yes' | /ʋ/ around rounded vowels for some speakers. | |
| Mayan | Yucatec | witz | [wit͡s] | 'mountain' | |
| Mongolian | гавал / ᠭᠠᠪᠠᠯᠠ / gawal | [ɢ̥á̠w̜ɐ̆ɬ] | 'skull' | ||
| Nepali | हावा / hawa | [ɦa̠wa̠] | 'wind' | See Nepali phonology | |
| Odia[13] | ଅଗ୍ରୱାଲ୍ / ogrowal | [ɔgɾɔwäl] | 'Agrawal' | ||
| Pashto | ﻭﺍﺭ / wār | [wɑr] | 'one time' | ||
| Persian | Dari | وَرزِش / warzish | [warˈzɪʃ] | 'sport' | May approach /ʋ/ in some regional dialects. |
| Farsi | نَو / nov | [now] | 'new' | Only in a diphthong or colloquially. | |
| Polish[14] | łaska | ⓘ | 'grace' | See Polish phonology. Corresponds to [ɫ] in older pronunciation and eastern dialects. | |
| Portuguese[15] | Most dialects | quando | [ˈkwɐ̃du] | 'when' | Post-lexically after /k/ and /ɡ/. See Portuguese phonology |
| boa | [ˈbow.wɐ] | 'good' (f.) | Epenthetic glide or allophone of /u/, following a stressed rounded vowel and preceding an unrounded one.[16] | ||
| General Brazilian | qual | [ˈkwaw] | 'which' | Allophone of /l/ in coda position for most Brazilian dialects.[15] | |
| Romanian | dulău | ⓘ | 'mastiff' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Russian | волк / volk | [wou̯k] | 'wolf' | Western dialects. | |
| Serbo-Croatian | Croatian[17] | vuk | [wûːk] | 'wolf' | Allophone of /ʋ/ before /u/.[17] See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Slovene[18][19] | cerkev | [ˈt͡sèːrkəw] | 'church' | Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable coda.[18][19] Voiceless [ʍ] before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology | |
| Sotho | sewa | [ˈsewa] | 'epidemic' | See Sesotho phonology | |
| Svan | კუ̂ენ / k’wen | [kʼwen] | 'marten' | ||
| Spanish[20] | Standard | cuanto | [ˈkwãn̪t̪o̞] | 'as much' | |
| Some dialects | Náhuatl | [ˈnawät̪l] | 'Nahuatl' | May also be fricative [w̝] ~ [ɣ̞ʷ]. See Spanish phonology | |
| ese huevo | [ˈese̞ ˈweβ̞o̞] | 'that egg' | |||
| Swahili | mwanafunzi | [mwɑnɑfunzi] | 'student' | ||
| Swedish | Central Standard[21] | Labialized approximant consonant; allophone of /ɡ/ in casual speech before the protruded vowels /ɔ, oː/. See Swedish phonology | |||
| Tagalog | araw | [ˈɐɾaw] | 'day' | See Tagalog phonology | |
| Thai | แหวน / waen | [wɛ̌ːn] | 'ring' | See Thai phonology | |
| Toki Pona | wile | [wile] | 'to want' | ||
| Vietnamese[22] | Standard | uỷ | [ʔwi˧˩] | 'to delegate' | See Vietnamese phonology |
| Southern | quê | [wej˧˧] | 'hometown' | ||
| Ukrainian | любов / liubov | ⓘ | 'love' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Welsh | gwae | [ɡwaɨ] | 'woe' | See Welsh phonology | |
| West Frisian | skowe | [skoːwə] | 'to shove' | ||
Nasal
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.
Features
Features of a nasal 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.
- Its place of articulation is labial–velar, which means it is simultaneously articulated with the lips and with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum). The dorsal closure is made and released slightly before the labial closure, but they overlap for most of their duration.
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is a nasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.
- 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.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guaraní | Paraguayan[23] | guaraníme | [ɰ̃ʷãɾ̃ãˈnĩmẽ] | 'in Guarani' | Allophone of /ɰ/ in the digraph ⟨gu⟩, nasalized due to vowel-consonant harmony.[23] |
| Kaingang[24] | [w̃ĩ] | 'to see' | Possible word-initial realization of /w/ before a nasal vowel.[25] | ||
| Polish[citation needed] | są | [sɔw̃] | 'they are' | See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese | Most dialects[26][27] | são | [sɐ̃w̃] | 'saint', 'they are' | Allophone of /w/ after nasal vowels. See Portuguese phonology |
| Some dialects[28] | muamba | [ˈmw̃ɐ̃bɐ] | 'smuggling', 'jobbery', 'stash' | Non-syllabic allophone of /u/ between nasal sounds. | |
| Marathi | संशय / saṃśay | [sə̃w̃ʃəe̯] | 'doubt' | Anuswara (ṁ) preceding र (r), व (v), श (ś), ष (ṣ), स (s), ह (h) or ज्ञ (jñ/dnya) is rendered as 'w̃'. | |
| Seri | cmiique | [ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ] | 'person' | Allophone of /m/. | |
| Shipibo[29] | banwan[30] | [βɐ̃ˈw̃ɐ̃] | 'parrot' | Allophone of /w/ after nasal vowels.[29] | |
| Telugu | ఆమ్లం / āmlaṃ | [aːw̃alaw̃] | 'acid' | Common colloquial pronunciation of intervocalic and final m. May also be a [ʋ̃].[31] | |
| Uwa | táw̃aya | [ˈtaw̃aja] | 'yellow' | ||
| Yoruba | wọ́n | [w̃ɔ̃́n] | 'they' | Allophone of /w/ before nasal vowels. | |