Voiceless labiodental fricative

Voiceless labiodental fricative
f
Image
IPA number	128
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	f
Unicode (hex)	U+0066
X-SAMPA	f
Kirshenbaum	f
Sound

The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in a number of spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨f⟩.

Features

Features of the voiceless labiodental fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• 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
Abkhaz		фы	[fə]	'lightning'	See Abkhaz phonology
Albanian		faqe	[facɛ]	'cheek'
Arabic	Standard	ظرف	[ðˤɑrf]	'envelope'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian		ֆուտբոլ	[futbol]	'football'
Basque		fin	[fin]	'thin'
Catalan		fase	[ˈfazə]	'phase'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		факс/faks	[faks]	'fax'
Chinese	Cantonese	佛/fat6	[fɐt˨]	'Buddha'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	飛/fēi	[fei˥]	'to fly'	See Mandarin phonology
Coptic		ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ	[ftow]	'four'
Czech		foukat	[foʊ̯kat]	'to blow'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		fiets	[fits]	'bike'	See Dutch phonology
English		fill	[fɪl]	'fill'	See English phonology
Ewe		?	[éfá]	'he was cold'
French		fabuleuse	[fabyløz]	'fabulous'	See French phonology
German		fade	[faːdə]	'insipid'	See German phonology
Goemai		[fat]		'to blow'
Greek		φύση/fysī	[ˈfisi]	'nature'	See Modern Greek phonology
Guajarati		ફળ/faļ	{{}}	'fruit'	See Gujarati phonology
Hindi		साफ़	[sɑːf]	'clean'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		figyel	[fiɟɛl]	'he/she pays attention'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		fantasma	[fanˈtazma]	'ghost'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		фыз	[fɨz]	'woman'
Kabyle		afus	[afus]	'hand'
Malay		feri	[feri]	'ferry'
Maltese		fenek	[fenek]	'rabbit'
Norwegian		filter	[filtɛɾ]	'filter'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish		futro	[ˈfutrɔ]	'fur'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		fogo	[ˈfoɡʊ]	'fire'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		foc	[fok]	'fire'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		верёвка	[vʲɪˈrʲofkə]	'rope'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Slovak		fúkať	[fuːkac]	'to blow'
Somali		feex	[fɛħ]	'wart'	See Somali phonology
Spanish		fantasma	[fãnˈtazma]	'ghost'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		fisk	[ˈfɪsk]	'fish'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		saf	[säf]	'pure'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		Фастів	[ˈfɑ.sʲciu̯]	'Fastiv'	See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu		ساف	[sɑːf]	'clean'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Vietnamese		pháo	[faːw˧ˀ˥]	'firecracker'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		ffon	[fɔn]	'stick'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		fol	[foɫ]	'full'
Yi		ꃚ/fu	[fu˧]	'roast'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	cafe	[kafɘ]	'coffee'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874 
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell 
• 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 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114 
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628 
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41