Avoiceless labial–velar fricative, or more accurately avoiceless labialized velar fricative and sometimes analyzed as avoiceless labial–velar approximant, is a type ofconsonantal sound, used inspokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨xʷ⟩ or, rather ambiguously, ⟨ʍ⟩. The letter ⟨ʍ⟩ was defined as a "voiceless[w]" until 1979,[1] when it was defined as africative with the place of articulation of[k͡p] the same way that[w] is an approximant with the place of articulation of[ɡ͡b].[2] The IPAHandbook describes ⟨ʍ⟩ as a "fricative" in the introduction,[3] while a chapter within characterizes it as an "approximant".[4]
There was once some controversy over whether avoiceless approximant could be distinct from africative,[5] but more recent research distinguishes between turbulent (fricative-like) and laminar (vowel- or approximant-like) airflow in the vocal tract.[6] English/ʍ/ is an approximant[w̥],[7] a labialized glottal fricative[hʷ], or an[hw] sequence, not a velar fricative.[8]Scots/ʍ/ has been described as a velar fricative,[9] especially in older Scots and peripheral dialects, where it is[xw].[10] Ladefoged and Maddieson were unable to confirm that any language has fricatives produced at two places of articulation, as the term "labial–velar" implies.[11] They conclude that "if [ʍ] is a fricative, it is better described as a voiceless labialized velar fricative".[12]
Features of a voiceless labialized velar fricative:
Itsmanner of articulation isfricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causingturbulence.
English/ʍ/ is generally a labialized velar approximant.[12] It is usually represented phonemically as/hw/, but phonetically it is not a sequence of[h] plus[w] (seeEnglish phonology). In General American[16] and New Zealand English[17] only some speakers maintain a distinction with/w/; in Europe, mostly heard in Irish and Scottish accents.[15] SeeEnglish phonology andphonological history of wh.
Allophone of/ʋ/ in the syllable onset before voiceless consonants, in free variation with a vowel[u]. Voiced[w] before voiced consonants.[25][26] SeeSlovene phonology.
^Association phonétique internationale (1952). "The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 1951)".Le Maître Phonétique. Troisième série.30 (97). Front matter.JSTOR44748475.
^International Phonetic Association (1978). "The International Phonetic Alphabet (Revised to 1979)".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.8 (1–2). Supplement.JSTOR44541414.
^Головко, Е. В. (1994).Словарь алеутско-русский и русско-алеутский (беринговский диалект) [Aleut-Russian and Russian-Aleut Dictionary (Bering dialect)]. Отд-ние изд-ва "Просвещение". p. 14.ISBN978-5-09-002312-2.
International Phonetic Association (1999),Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press,ISBN0-521-65236-7
Johnston, Paul (1997), "Regional Variation", in Jones, Charles (ed.),The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 433–513,ISBN978-0-7486-0754-9,JSTOR10.3366/j.ctvxcrwhq.15
Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006),The Atlas of North American English, Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter,ISBN3-11-016746-8
Ladefoged, Peter (2006),A Course in Phonetics (5th ed.), Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers
Shadle, Christine (2000), "The Aerodynamics of Speech", in Hardcastle, W. J.; Laver, J. (eds.),Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, Blackwell,ISBN0-631-18848-7
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,ISBN0-521-65236-7,S2CID249404451
