Labiodental approximant

Labiodental approximant
ʋ
Image
IPA number	150
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʋ
Unicode (hex)	U+028B
X-SAMPA	P or v\
Kirshenbaum	r<lbd>
Sound

The labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, similar to an English double-u pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter vee, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʋ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is P or v\.

Features

Features of the 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 lips 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
Danish	véd	[ʋeːˀð]	'know(s)'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	wang	[ʋɑŋ]	'cheek'	See Dutch phonology
English	red	[ʋed]	'red'	Mostly idiosyncratic but somewhat dialectal (especially in London and South East England). See English phonology
Finnish	vauva	[ˈʋɑuʋːɑ]	'baby'	See Finnish phonology
German	was	[ʋas]	'what'	Some speakers. See German phonology
Guaraní	avañe'ẽw	[ʔãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ]	'Guaraní language'
Hawaiian	wikiwiki	[ʋikiʋiki]	'fast'	May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hawaiian phonology
Hindi	वरुण	[ʋəruɳ]	'Varuna'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Norwegian	venn	[ʋɛn]	'friend'	See Norwegian phonology
Nsenga	ŵanthu	[ʋaⁿtʰu]	'people'
Serbo-Croatian	цврчак/cvrčak	[tsʋr̩tʃak]	'cricket'	May also be realized as [v], depending on dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Swedish	vän	[ʋɛːn]	'friend'	Some speakers. See Swedish phonology
Tamil	வாய்	[ʋɑj]	'mouth'	See Tamil phonology
Turkish	ev	[e̞ʋ]	'house'	See Turkish phonology
West Frisian	wêr	[ʋɛːr]	'where'

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• R-labialization