Voiceless labialized velar approximant

ʍ

IPA Number 169

Encoding

Entity (decimal) ʍ

Unicode (hex) U+028D

X-SAMPA W

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The voiceless labialized velar (or labio-velar) approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʍ⟩ (a rotated lowercase letter ⟨w⟩) or ⟨w̥⟩.

[ʍ] is generally an approximant, but in English, the language for which the letter ⟨ʍ⟩ is primarily used, it is sometimes classified as a fricative. The symbol however is rarely used for a true labialized velar fricative, [xʷ], as found in other languages.

Features[edit]

Features of the voiceless labialized 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 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.
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence[edit]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	Taiwanese Hokkien	沃花/ak-hue	[ʔak̚˥ʔ ʍeː˥]	'(to) water flowers'
Cornish		whath/hwath	[ʍæːθ]	'yet'	See Cornish phonology
Danish	Jutish	hvor	[ʍɔr] and variations	'where'	Generally transcribed as [hw-] in Danish dialectology.
Danish	Old, Middle and Early Modern Danish^{[citation needed]}	hvor	[ʍɔr] and variations	'where'	Modern Danish spelling has retained the mute h in initial hv- and hj-. See Danish phonology
Dogrib^[1]		nahwhı̨	[nahʍĩ]	'snow-blindness'	See Dogrib phonology
English	Conservative Received Pronunciation^[2]	whine	[ʍaɪ̯n]	'whine'	Commonly transcribed as /hw/ for simplicity; contrasts with /w/. In General American^[3] and New Zealand English^[4]^[5] only some speakers maintain the distinction; in Europe, mostly heard in Irish and Scottish accents.^[2] See English phonology and phonological history of wh.
	Cultivated South African^[6]
	Conservative General American^[3]^[7]
	Irish^[6]^[8]^[9]		[ʍʌɪ̯n]
	Scottish^[6]^[10]^[11]^[12]		[ʍʌɪ̯n]
	Southern American^[13]		[ʍäːn]
	New Zealand^[4]^[5]^[10]^[14]		[ʍɑe̯n]
Hupa		tł'iwh	[t͡ɬʼiʍ]	'snake'	Contrasts with /w/ and /xʷ/
Italian	Tuscan^[15]	la qualifica	[lä ʍäˈliːfihä]	'the qualification'	Intervocalic allophone of /kw/. See Italian phonology
Kham	Gamale Kham^[16]	ह्वा	[ʍɐ]	'tooth'
Nahuatl		Cuauhtēmallān	[kʷaʍteːmalːaːn]	'Guatemala'	Allophone of /w/ before voiceless consonants
Slovene^[17]^[18]		vse	[ˈʍsɛ]	'everything'	Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable onset before voiceless consonants, in free variation with a vowel [u]. Voiced [w] before voiced consonants.^[17]^[18] See Slovene phonology
Washo		Wáʔi	[ˈw̥aʔi]	'he's the one who's doing it'
Welsh	Southern Colloquial	chwe	[ʍeː]	'six'	See Welsh phonology

Notes[edit]

^ "A Dogrib Dictionary" (PDF). TŁĮCHǪ Government. 1996. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
^ a b "Received Pronunciation Phonology".
^ a b Rogers (2000), p. 120.
^ a b Rogers (2000), p. 117.
^ a b "Australian English and New Zealand English" (PDF). p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.
^ a b c Lass (2002), p. 121.
^ "North American English: General Accents" (PDF). Universität Stuttgart - Institut für Linguistik. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.
^ Wells (1982), p. 432.
^ "Irish English and Ulster English" (PDF). pp. 4 and 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.
^ a b McMahon (2002), p. 31.
^ Wells (1982), p. 408.
^ "Scottish Standard English and Scots" (PDF). p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.
^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006).
^ Wells (1982), p. 610.
^ Hall (1944:75)
^ Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. ISSN 1836-6821.
^ a b Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999:136)
^ a b Greenberg (2006:18)

References[edit]

Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene, Kansas: University of Kansas
Hall, Robert A. Jr. (1944). "Italian phonemes and orthography". Italica. American Association of Teachers of Italian. 21 (2): 72–82. doi:10.2307/475860. JSTOR 475860.
Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006), The Atlas of North American English, Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016746-8
Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.), Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
McMahon, April (2002), An Introduction to English Phonology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd, ISBN 0-7486-1252-1
Rogers, Henry (2000), The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics, Essex: Pearson Education Limited, ISBN 978-0-582-38182-7
Šuštaršič, Rastislav; Komar, Smiljana; Petek, Bojan (1999), "Slovene", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 135–139, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Volume 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278), Volume 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52129719-2 , 0-52128541-0 .

External links[edit]

List of languages with [w̥] on PHOIBLE

[1] "A Dogrib Dictionary" (PDF). TŁĮCHǪ Government. 1996. Retrieved 1 April 2021.

[britishlibrary-2] "Received Pronunciation Phonology".

[FOOTNOTERogers2000120-3] Rogers (2000), p. 120.

[FOOTNOTERogers2000117-4] Rogers (2000), p. 117.

[nz-5] "Australian English and New Zealand English" (PDF). p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.

[FOOTNOTELass2002121-6] Lass (2002), p. 121.

[7] "North American English: General Accents" (PDF). Universität Stuttgart - Institut für Linguistik. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.

[FOOTNOTEWells1982432-8] Wells (1982), p. 432.

[9] "Irish English and Ulster English" (PDF). pp. 4 and 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.

[FOOTNOTEMcMahon200231-10] McMahon (2002), p. 31.

[FOOTNOTEWells1982408-11] Wells (1982), p. 408.

[12] "Scottish Standard English and Scots" (PDF). p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.

[FOOTNOTELabovAshBoberg2006-13] Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006).

[FOOTNOTEWells1982610-14] Wells (1982), p. 610.

[15] Hall (1944:75)

[16] Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. ISSN 1836-6821.

[skp136-17] Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999:136)

[gr18-18] Greenberg (2006:18)