Labiodental approximant

Labiodental approximant
ʋ
IPA number	150
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʋ
Unicode (hex)	U+028B
X-SAMPA	P or v\
Kirshenbaum	r<lbd>
Braille
Image
Sound
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The labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is similar to an English w pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter V. 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 lip 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
Armenian	Eastern[1]	ոսկի	[ʋɔski]	'gold'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		hawa	[ha:ʋa]	'wind'	Predominant in the Urmia dialects. For some speakers, [v] is used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties.
Catalan	Balearic	treballava	[t̪ɾəbəˈl̠ʲæ̞ʋə]	'worked'	Allophone of /v/.[2] See Catalan phonology
	Valencian[2]		[t̪ɾe̠bɐ̞ˈl̠ʲæ̞̈ʋɐ̞]
Danish	Standard[3]	véd	[ʋe̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ]	'know(s)'	Also described as a short plosive [b̪̆]; rarely realized as a fricative [v] instead.[4] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Netherlandic	wang	[ʋɑŋ]	'cheek'	In southern dialects of the Netherlands realised as bilabial [β̞]. See Dutch phonology
English		red	[ʋe̞d̥]	'red'	Mostly idiosyncratic but somewhat dialectal[5] (especially in London and South East England). See English phonology and R-labialization
Faroese[6]		røða	[ˈɹøːʋa]	'speech'	Word-initial and intervocalic allophone of /v/. In the first case, it is in a free variation with a fricative [v].[6] See Faroese phonology
Finnish		vauva	[ˈʋɑuʋːɑ]	'baby'	See Finnish phonology
German	Standard	was	[ʋas]	'what'	Some speakers, especially in the South. See German phonology
	Swiss				Corresponds to /v/ in Standard German[7]
Guaraní		avañe'ẽ	[ʔãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ]	'Guaraní language'	Contrasts with /w/ and /ɰ/
Hawaiian		wikiwiki	[ʋikiʋiki]	'fast'	May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hawaiian phonology
Hindi		वरुण	[ʋəruɳ]	'Varuna'	See Hindustani phonology
Italian	Northern dialects[8]	raro	[ˈʋäːʋo]	'rare'	Some speakers, especially in Parma. May also be uvular, either a fricative [ʁ] or a trill [ʀ].[8]
Marathi		वजन	[ʋə(d)zən]	'weight'	See Marathi phonology
Miyako[9]		[ʋ̩tɑ]		'thick'	May be syllabic.
Norwegian	Standard Eastern[10][11]	venn	[ʋɛ̝nː]	'friend'	Sometimes realized as a fricative [v].[11][12] See Norwegian phonology
Nsenga		ŵanthu	[ʋaⁿtʰu]	'people'
Portuguese	Some speakers[13]	louvo	[ˈloːʋu]	'I praise'	Very rare intervocalic allophone of /v/ in unstressed syllables. See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਵਾਲ	[ʋäːl]	'hair'
Serbo-Croatian		цврчак / cvrčak	[t͡sʋř̩ːt͡ʃak]	'cricket'	May also be realized as [v], depending on dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovene[14]		veter	[ˈʋéːtər]	'wind'	Also described as fricative [v].[15][16] See Slovene phonology
Swedish		vän	[ʋɛn]	'friend'	Some speakers. See Swedish phonology
Tamil		வாய்	[ʋɑj]	'mouth'	See Tamil phonology
West Frisian		wêr	[ʋɛːr]	'where'

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• R-labialization

References

1. Dum-Tragut (2009:20)
2. Saborit Villar (2009:52)
3. Basbøll (2005:62)
4. Basbøll (2005:27 and 66)
5. Foulkes & Docherty (1999:?)
6. Árnason (2011:115)
7. Schmid, Stephan (2010), Segmental features of Swiss German ethnolects, retrieved 2015-04-27
8. Canepari (1999), pp. 98–101.
9. Thomas Pellard, Why it is important to study the Ryukyuan languages (presentation)
10. Kristoffersen (2000:22 and 25)
11. Vanvik (1979:41)
12. Kristoffersen (2000:74)
13. Principais Fenómenos de Variação Registados nas Transcrições das Amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (Portuguese)
14. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999:136)
15. Priestley (2002:394)
16. Greenberg (2006:18)

Bibliography

• Árnason, Kristján (2011). The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199229317.
• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Foulkes, Paul; Docherty, Gerard J., eds. (1999), Urban Voices, Arnold
• Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene, Kansas: University of Kansas
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
• Priestley, T.M.S. (2002), "Slovene", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville. G., The Slavonic Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 388–451, ISBN 0-415-28078-8
• Saborit Villar, Josep (2009), Millorem la pronúncia, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• 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
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6