Voiced labiodental approximant

The voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is similar to an English w 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\.

Voiced labiodental approximant
ʋ
IPA Number	150
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʋ
Unicode (hex)	U+028B
X-SAMPA	P or v\
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The labiodental approximant is the typical realization of /v/ in the Indian and 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.[1]

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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	Eastern[2]	ոսկի	[ʋɔski]	'gold'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		hawa‎	[haːʋa]	'wind'	Predominant in the Urmia dialects. For some speakers, [v] is used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties.
Catalan	Balearic	treballava	[t̪ɾəbəˈʎ̟aʋə]	'worked'	Allophone of /v/.[3] See Catalan phonology
	Valencian[3]		[t̪ɾe̠bäˈʎ̟aʋä]
Chinese	Mandarin	为 / wèi	[ʋêi]	'for'	Prevalent in northern and Taiwanese dialects. Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties.
Danish	Standard[4]	véd	[ʋe̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ]	'know(s)'	Also described as a short plosive [b̪̆]; rarely realized as a fricative [v] instead.[5] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard	wang	[ʋɑŋ]	'cheek'	In southern dialects of the Netherlands realised as bilabial [β̞]. See Dutch phonology
English	Indian South African[1]	vine	[ʋaɪn]	'vine'	Corresponds to a fricative [v] in other accents.
	Some speakers	red	[ʋe̞d̥]	'red'	Mostly idiosyncratic but somewhat dialectal[6] (especially in London and South East England). See English phonology and R-labialization
Faroese[7]		røða	[ˈɹøːʋa]	'speech'	Word-initial and intervocalic allophone of /v/. In the first case, it is in a free variation with a fricative [v].[7] See Faroese phonology
Finnish		vauva	[ˈʋɑu̯ʋɑ]	'baby'	See Finnish phonology
German	Standard	was	[ʋas]	'what'	Post-consonantal allophone of /v/ for most speakers. Also used word-initially by some, especially in the South. See Standard German phonology.
	Swiss				Corresponds to /v/ in Standard German[8]
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
Hindi		वरुण	[ʋəruɳ]	'Varuna'	See Hindustani phonology
Italian	Some speakers[9]	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 Alto Adige (bordering with German-speaking Austria), 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].[9] See Italian phonology.
Lithuanian		vaikas	[ʋɐɪ̯ˑkɐs]	'kid'	See Lithuanian phonology.
Marathi		वजन	[ʋə(d)zən]	'weight'	See Marathi phonology
Miyako[10]		[ʋ̩tɑ]		'thick'	May be syllabic.
Norwegian	Urban East[11][12]	venn	[ʋe̞nː]	'friend'	Sometimes realized as a fricative [v].[12][13] See Norwegian phonology
Nsenga		ŵanthu	[ʋaⁿtʰu]	'people'
Punjabi		ਵਾਲ	[ʋäːl]	'hair'
Russian[14]		волосы	[ˈʋʷo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞]	'hair'	Common realization of /v/; contrasts with palatalized form.[14] See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		цврчак / cvrčak	[t͡sʋř̩ːt͡ʃak]	'cricket'	May also be realized as [v], depending on dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shona		vanhu	[ʋan̤u]	'people'	Contrasts with /v/ and /w/.
Slovak[15]		voda	[ˈʋo̞dä]	'water'	Usual realization of /v/.[15] See Slovak phonology
Slovene[16]		veter	[ˈʋéːtər]	'wind'	Also described as fricative [v].[17][18] See Slovene phonology
Swedish		vän	[ʋɛːn]	'friend'	Some speakers. See Swedish phonology
Spanish[19]	Chilean	hablar	[äˈʋläɾ]	'to speak'	Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology
Tamil		வாய்	[ʋɑj]	'mouth'	See Tamil phonology
Ukrainian[20]		він	[ʋin]	'he'	Possible prevocalic realization of /w/, most commonly before /i/.[20] 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]

Notes

1. Mesthrie (2004:960)
2. Dum-Tragut (2009:20)
3. Saborit Vilar (2009:52)
4. Basbøll (2005:62)
5. Basbøll (2005:27 and 66)
6. Foulkes & Docherty (1999:?)
7. Árnason (2011:115)
8. Schmid, Stephan (2010), Segmental features of Swiss German ethnolects, retrieved 2015-04-27
9. Canepari (1999), pp. 98–101. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFCanepari1999 (help)
10. Thomas Pellard, Why it is important to study the Ryukyuan languages Archived 2015-10-18 at the Wayback Machine (presentation)
11. Kristoffersen (2000:22 and 25)
12. Vanvik (1979:41)
13. Kristoffersen (2000:74)
14. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)
15. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
16. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999:136)
17. Priestley (2002:394)
18. Greenberg (2006:18)
19. "El alófono labiodental sonoro [v] del fonema /b/ en el castellano de Concepción (Chile): Una investigación exploratoria" (PDF).
20. Žovtobrjux & Kulyk (1965:121–122)

References

• Árnason, Kristján (2011). The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199229314.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Foulkes, Paul; Docherty, Gerard J., eds. (1999), Urban Voices, Arnold
• Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene, Kansas: University of Kansas
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
• Mesthrie, Rajend (2004), "Indian South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 953–963, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• Priestley, T.M.S. (2002), "Slovene", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville. G. (eds.), The Slavonic Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 388–451, ISBN 0-415-28078-8
• Saborit Vilar, Josep (2009), Millorem la pronúncia, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• 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
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
• Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395
• Žovtobrjux, M.A.; Kulyk, B.M. (1965), Kurs sučasnoji ukrajins'koji literaturnoji movy. Častyna I., Kiev: Radjans’ka škola

External links

• List of languages with [ʋ] on PHOIBLE