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, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
al sound, used in
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
that represents this sound is or occasionally . The letter was defined as a "voiceless " until 1979, when it was defined as a
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
with the place of articulation of the same way that is an approximant with the place of articulation of . The IPA ''Handbook'' describes as a "fricative" in the introduction (IPA 1999: ix) while a chapter within characterizes it as an "approximant" (IPA 1999: 136).
Some linguists posit
voiceless approximants distinct from voiceless fricatives. To them, English is an approximant ,
[For instance, Lyle Campbell (2020) ''Historical Linguistics'', 4th edition, page xxii.] 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
*
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 ej ...
*
hwair
Hwair (also , , ) is the name of , the Gothic alphabet, Gothic letter expressing the or sound (reflected in English language, English by the inverted ''Wh (digraph), wh''-spelling for ). Hwair is also the name of the Latin ligature (capital ) ...
*
Wh (digraph)
This is a list of digraphs used in various Latin alphabets. In the list, letters with diacritics are arranged in alphabetical order according to their base, e.g. is alphabetised with , not at the end of the alphabet, as it would be in Danish, ...
*
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
Voiceless labially co-articulated approximants