The voiceless labial–velar fricative is a type of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
al sound, used in
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
that represents this sound is .
Some linguists posit
voiceless approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
s distinct from voiceless fricatives. To them, English is an approximant , a labialized glottal fricative , or an sequence, not a velar fricative.
Scots has been described as a velar fricative, especially in older Scots, where it was . Other linguists believe that a "voiceless approximant" is a contradiction in terms, and so must be the same as . Ladefoged and Maddieson were unable to confirm that any language has fricatives produced at two places of articulation, like labial and velar. They conclude that "if it is a fricative, it is better described as a voiceless labialized velar fricative".
Features
Features of the voiceless labial–velar fricative:
Occurrence
See also
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Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ejecti ...
*
hwair
Hwair (also , , ) is the name of , the Gothic letter expressing the or sound (reflected in English by the inverted '' wh''-spelling for ). Hwair is also the name of the Latin ligature (capital ) used to transcribe Gothic.
Name
The name of the ...
*
Wh (digraph)
This is a list of digraphs used in various Latin alphabets. Capitalisation involves only the first letter (''ch'' becomes ''Ch'') unless otherwise stated (''ij'' becomes ''IJ'').
Letters with diacritics are arranged in alphabetic order accordin ...
*
Wine–whine merger
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Voiceless labial-velar fricative
Velar consonants
Labialized consonants
Co-articulated consonants
Voiceless oral consonants
Central consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Approximant-fricative consonants