Voiced labio-velar approximant

The voiced labio-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⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is w. In most languages it is a labialized velar approximant [ɰʷ], and the semivocalic counterpart of the close back rounded vowel [u] - i.e. the non-syllabic close back rounded vowel. 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, (bi)labial column, or both. The placement may have more to do with phonological criteria than phonetic ones.[2]

"w (IPA)" redirects here. For consonants followed by superscript ʷ, see Labialization.
Voiced labio-velar approximant
w
IPA Number170
Encoding
Entity (decimal)w
Unicode (hex)U+0077
X-SAMPAw
Braille
Audio sample
source · help
Compressed labio-velar approximant
ɰᵝ
wᵝ

Some languages have the voiced labio-prevelar approximant,[3] which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiced labio-prevelar approximant, though not as front as the prototypical labialized palatal approximant.

Features

Features of the voiced 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. 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 at least not rounded), which is a true labial–velar (as opposed to labialized velar) consonant. Close transcriptions may avoid the symbol [w] in such cases, 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 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.

Occurrence
LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Abkhazауаҩы/auaòy[awaˈɥə]'human'See Abkhaz phonology
Adygheоды/ody[wadə] 'thin'
ArabicModern Standard[4]وَرْد‎/ward[ward]'rose'See Arabic phonology
Assameseৱাশ্বিংটন/washington[waʃiŋtɔn]'Washington'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaicktawa‎[kta:wa]'book'Most speakers. [v] and [ʋ] are used in the Urmia dialects.
Basquelau[law]'four'
Belarusianвоўк/voŭk[vɔwk]'wolf'See Belarusian phonology
Bengaliওয়াদা/uada[wada]'promise'See Bengali phonology
Berber ⴰⵡⴰⵍ/awal [æwæl] 'speech'
Catalan[5]creuar[kɾəˈwa]'to cross'See Catalan phonology
ChineseCantonese挖/waat[wɑːt̚˧]'dig'See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin挖/wā[wa̠˥]See Mandarin phonology
DutchColloquialkouwe[ˈkʌu̯wə]'cold'Lenited allophone of /d/ after /ʌu̯/. See Dutch phonology
Standard Surinamesewelp[wɛɫp]'cub'Corresponds to [ʋ] in the Netherlands and to [β̞] in Belgium. See Dutch phonology
Englishweep[wiːp]'weep'See English phonology
Esperantoaŭto['awto]'car'See Esperanto phonology
French[6]oui[wi]'yes'See French phonology
GermanBauer[bau̯ɐ]'farmer'Allophone of [u] in between two vowels. See German phonology
Hawaiian[7]wikiwiki[wikiwiki]'fast'May also be realized as [v]. See Hawaiian phonology
HebrewOrientalכּוֹחַ‎/kowaḥ[ˈkowaħ]'power'See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani[8]विश्वास/vishawaas/vishawās[vɪʃwaːs]'believe'See Hindustani phonology
Irishvóta[ˈwoːt̪ˠə]'vote'See Irish phonology
Italian[9]uomo[ˈwɔːmo]'man'See Italian phonology
Japaneseわたし/watashi[ɰᵝataɕi]'I'Pronounced with lip compression. See Japanese phonology
Kabardianуэ/wǎ[wa] 'you'
Korean왜가리/waegari[wɛɡɐɾi]'heron'See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish[10]zwee[t͡swe̝ː]'two'Allophone of /v/ after /k, t͡s, ʃ/.[11] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malaywang[waŋ]'money'
Mayan Yucatec witz [wit͡s] 'mountain'
Nepaliवकील‎/wakiil/wakīl[wʌˈkiːl]'lawyer'See Nepali phonology
Pashtoﻭﺍﺭ‎/war[wɑr]'one time'
Polish[12]łaska[ˈwäskä] 'grace'See Polish phonology. Corresponds to [ɫ] in older pronunciation and eastern dialects
Portuguese[13]Most dialectsquando[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.[14]
General Brazilianqual[ˈkwaw]'which'Allophone of /l/ in coda position for most Brazilian dialects.[15]
Romaniandulău[duˈləw]'mastiff'See Romanian phonology
Serbo-CroatianCroatian[16]vuk[wûːk]'wolf'Allophone of /ʋ/ before /u/.[16] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sericmiique[ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ]'person'Allophone of /m/
Slovene[17][18]cerkev[ˈt͡sèːrkəw]'church'Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable coda.[17][18] Voiceless [ʍ] before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology
Sothosewa[ˈsewa]'epidemic'See Sesotho phonology
Spanish[19]cuanto[ˈkwãn̪t̪o̞]'as much'See Spanish phonology
Swahilimwanafunzi[mwɑnɑfunzi]'student'
Tagalogaraw[ˈɐɾaw]'day'See Tagalog phonology
Thaiแหวน /waen[wɛn˩˩˦]'ring'
Vietnamese[20]tuần[t̪wən˨˩]'week'See Vietnamese phonology
Welshgwae[ɡwaɨ]'woe'See Welsh phonology
West Frisianskowe[skoːwə]'to shove'

See also

Notes
  1. Guidelines for Transcription of English Consonants and Vowels (PDF); see the examples on the fifth page.
  2. Ohala & Lorentz (1977:577)
  3. Instead of "pre-velar", it can be called "advanced velar", "fronted velar", "front-velar", "palato-velar", "post-palatal", "retracted palatal" or "backed palatal".
  4. Watson (2002:13)
  5. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:55)
  6. Fougeron & Smith (1993:75)
  7. Pukui & Elbert (1986:xvii)
  8. Ladefoged (2005:141)
  9. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
  10. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67, 69.
  11. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 69.
  12. Jassem (2003:103)
  13. Barbosa & Albano (2004:230)
  14. (in Portuguese) Delta: Documentation of studies on theoretical and applied Linguistics – Problems in the tense variant of carioca speech.
  15. Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (23 Dec 2004). "Brazilian Portuguese". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (2): 227–232. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  16. Landau et al. (1999:68)
  17. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999:136)
  18. Greenberg (2006:18)
  19. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:256)
  20. Thompson (1959:458–461)

References
  • Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
  • Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
  • Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L. (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874
  • Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
  • Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene, Kansas: University of Kansas
  • Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
  • Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
  • Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
  • Ohala, John; Lorentz, James (1977), "Story of [w]: An exercise in the phonetic explanation for sound patterns" (PDF), Berkeley Linguistics Society annual meeting 3 proceedings, pp. 577–599
  • Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H. (1986), Hawaiian Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, ISBN 0-8248-0703-0
  • Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
  • 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
  • Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
  • Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
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