| Voiceless labiodental affricate | |
|---|---|
| p̪f | |
| Audio sample | |
Avoiceless labiodental affricate ([p̪͡f] inIPA) is a rareaffricate consonant that is initiated as alabiodental stop[p̪] and released as avoiceless labiodental fricative[f].
The XiNkuna dialect ofTsonga has this affricate, as in[tiɱp̪͡fuβu] "hippopotamuses" andaspirated[ɱp̪͡fʰuka] "distance" (compare[ɱfutsu] "tortoise", which shows that the stop is notepenthetic), as well as avoiced labiodental affricate,[b̪͡v], as in[ʃileb̪͡vu] "chin". There is novoiceless labiodental fricative[f] in this dialect of Tsonga, only avoiceless bilabial fricative, as in[ɸu] "finished". (Among voiced fricatives, both[β] and[v] occur, however.)
German has a similar sound/p͡f/ inPfeffer/ˈp͡fɛfɐ/ ('pepper') andApfel/ˈap͡fəl/ ('apple').Phonotactically, this sound does not occur afterlong vowels,diphthongs or/l/. It differs from a true labiodental affricate in that it starts out bilabial, but then the lower lip retracts slightly for the frication.
In many varieties ofCentral Plains Mandarin andLanyin Mandarin, labialized retroflex fricatives and affricates[ʂʷ][tʂʷ][tʂʰʷ] (sometimes including[ʐʷ~ɻʷ]) become labiodental, respectively resulting in the production of[f][p̪͡f][p̪͡fʰ] (sometimes including [v]).
The sound occurs occasionally in English, in words where one syllable ends with "p" and the next starts with "f", like in "helpful" or "stepfather".
Features of a voiceless labiodental affricate:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burushaski[1] | iphusimi | [ip̪͡fusimi] | 'he ties him' | In free variation with/pʰ/. May also be realized as/f/. | |
| English | Some speakers | helpful | [ˈhɛɫp̚ˌp̪͡fəɫ] | 'helpful' | Occurs for some speakers in consonant clusters of /pf/ |
| info | [ˈɪɱˌp̪͡fəʊ̯] | 'info' | Allophone of /f/ after nasal consonants for some speakers as a form of epenthesis; usually occurs during fast and casual speech. | ||
| German | Standard[2] | Pfirsiche | [ˈp͡fɪɐ̯zɪçə]ⓘ | 'peaches' | Bilabial-labiodental.[2] Arisen as a reflex of /p/ in the8th century High German sound shift.[3] SeeStandard German phonology |
| Swiss dialects[4][5] | Soipfe | [ˈz̥oi̯p͡fə] | 'soap' | Bilabial-labiodental. The example word is from theZürich dialect. | |
| Ghomalaʼ | [example needed] | ||||
| Italian | Some central-south dialects[6] | infatti | [iɱˈp̪͡fät̪̚t̪i] | 'indeed' | Labiodental, allophone of/f/ after nasals.[6] SeeItalian phonology |
| Luxembourgish[7] | Kampf | [ˈkʰɑmp͡f] | 'fight' | Occurs only in German loanwords.[7] SeeLuxembourgish phonology | |
| Ngiti[8] | pfɔ̀mvɔ | [p̪͡fɔ̀ɱ(b̪)vɔ̄] | 'water spirit' | Less commonly [p͡ɸ][9] | |
| Kinyarwanda | gupfundikira | [gup̪͡fu:ndiciɾa] | 'to close, seal' | ||
| Central Plains Mandarin | Guanzhong dialect | 猪/豬zhū | [p̪͡fú²¹] | 'pig' | The labialized retroflex fricatives and affricates in Old Mandarin became labiodental.[10] Possible route: [tʂʷ]>[tf]>[p̪͡f]. |
| Yanhe dialect | 砖/磚zhuān | [p̪͡fã²⁴] | 'brick' | ||
| Dungan Language | 穿чуaн | [p̪͡fʰæ̃²⁴] | 'to wear' | ||
| Slovene | pfenig | [ˈp̪féːnìk] | 'pfennig' | Rarely occurs, mostly in German loanwords. SeeSlovene phonology | |
| Sopvoma[11] | ōpfǒ | [o̞˧p̪͡fo̞˦] | 'father' | Aspirated [p̪͡fʰ] in some words, in free variation. "ǒ" represents a "Higher Mid" tone between the Mid and Lower High tones found in some speakers. | |
| Tsonga | XiNkuna dialect | timpfuvu | [tiɱp̪͡fuβu] | 'hippopotami' | Contrasts with aspirated form. |
