The 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 ⟨ʋ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is P
or v\
. With an advanced diacritic, ⟨ʋ̟⟩, this letter also indicates a bilabial approximant, though the diacritic is frequently omitted because no contrast is likely.[1][2][failed verification]
Voiced labiodental approximant | |||
---|---|---|---|
ʋ | |||
IPA Number | 150 | ||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ʋ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+028B | ||
X-SAMPA | P or v\ | ||
Braille | |||
|
The 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 ([ʋ̥]), it is also an example of a language contrasting voiceless and voiced labiodental approximants.[3]
Features
Features of the 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Äiwoo | nyiveli | [ɲiʋeli] | 'garden land'[4] | ||
Armenian | Eastern[5] | ոսկի | [ʋɔski] | 'gold' | |
Assyrian | hawa ܗܘܐ | [hɑːʋɑ] | 'wind' | Predominant in the Urmia dialects. For some speakers, [v] is used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties. | |
Catalan | Balearic | fava | [ˈfɑʋɐ] | 'bean' | Allophone of /v/.[6] See Catalan phonology |
Valencian[6] | |||||
Chinese | Mandarin | 為 | [we̞i] [ʋêi] | 'for' | Prevalent in northern dialects. Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. |
Chuvash | аван | [aʋ'an] | 'good, well' | Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. | |
Dhivehi | ވަޅު / valhu | [ʋaɭu] | 'well' (noun) | ||
Danish | Standard[7] | véd | [ʋe̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ] | 'know(s)' | Also described as a short plosive [b̪̆]; rarely realized as a fricative [v] instead.[8] See Danish phonology |
Dutch | Standard | wang | [ʋɑŋ] | 'cheek' | In southern dialects of the Netherlands realised as bilabial [β̞]. See Dutch phonology |
English | Indian[3] | vine | [ʋaɪ̯n] | 'vine' | Corresponds to a fricative [v] in other accents. |
Some 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 | [ˈɹøːʋa] | '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 | [ˈʋɑu̯ʋɑ] | 'baby' | See Finnish phonology | |
German | Swiss | was | [ʋas] | 'what' | Corresponds to /v/ in Standard German[11] |
Guaraní | avañe'ẽ | [ʔãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ] | 'Guaraní language' | Contrasts with /w/ and /ɰ/ | |
Hawaiian | wikiwiki | [ʋikiʋiki] | 'fast' | May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hawaiian phonology | |
Hindustani | Hindi | वाला | [ʋɑːlɑː] | (the) 'one' | Also an allophone of /w/. See Hindustani phonology. |
Urdu | والا | ||||
Italian | Some speakers[12] | raro | [ˈʋäːʋo] | '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 [ʀ] or a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ].[12] See Italian phonology. |
Khmer | អាវុធ / avŭth | [ʔɑːʋut] | 'weapon' | See Khmer phonology | |
Marathi | वजन | [ʋə(d)zən] | 'weight' | See Marathi phonology | |
Miyako[13] | [ʋ̩tɑ] | 'thick' | May be syllabic. | ||
Norwegian | Urban East[14][15] | venn | [ʋe̞nː] | 'friend' | Sometimes realized as a fricative [v].[15][16] See Norwegian phonology |
Nsenga | ŵanthu | [ʋaⁿtʰu] | 'people' | ||
Punjabi | Gurmukhi | ਵਾਲ | [ʋäːl] | 'hair' | |
Shahmukhi | وال | ||||
Russian[17] | волосы | [ˈʋʷo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞] | 'hair' | Common realization of /v/; contrasts with palatalized form.[17] See Russian phonology | |
Serbo-Croatian | цврчак / cvrčak | [t͡sʋř̩ːt͡ʃak] | 'cricket' | /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).[18][19] | |
Shona | vanhu | [ʋan̤u] | 'people' | Contrasts with /v/ and /w/. | |
Slovak[20] | voda | 'water' | Usual realization of /v/.[20] See Slovak phonology | ||
Slovene[21] | veter | [ˈʋéːt̪ə̀ɾ] | 'wind' | Also described as fricative [v].[22][23] See Slovene phonology | |
Spanish[24] | Chilean | hablar | [äʋˈläɾ] | 'to speak' | Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology |
Swedish | Some speakers | vän | [ʋɛːn] | 'friend' | See Swedish phonology |
Tamil | வாய் | [ʋɑj] | 'mouth' | See Tamil phonology | |
Telugu | వల | [ʋala] | 'net' | ||
Ukrainian[25] | він | [ʋin] | 'he' | Possible prevocalic realization of /w/, most commonly before /i/.[25] See Ukrainian phonology | |
West Frisian | wêr | [ʋɛːr] | 'where' | See West Frisian phonology |
See also
- List of phonetics topics
- R-labialization
- Rhotacism (speech impediment): pronouncing ⟨r⟩ as [ʋ]