Voiced labial–velar approximant

"w (IPA)" redirects here. For consonants followed by superscript ʷ, see Labialization.

The voiced labial–velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in certain spoken languages, including English. It is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨w⟩ in the English alphabet;^[1] likewise, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨w⟩, or rarely [ɰʷ], and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is w. In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of the close back rounded vowel [u]. In inventory charts of languages with other labialized velar consonants, /w/ will be placed in the same column as those consonants. When consonant charts have only labial and velar columns, /w/ may be placed in the velar column, (bi)labial column, or both. The placement may have more to do with phonological criteria than phonetic ones.^[2]

Voiced labial–velar approximant
w
IPA number	170
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	w
Unicode (hex)	U+0077
X-SAMPA	w
Braille

Compressed labial–velar approximant
w͍
ɰᵝ

Some languages have a voiced labial–prevelar approximant,^[a] which is more fronted than the place of articulation of the prototypical voiced labialized velar approximant, though not as front as the prototypical labialized palatal approximant.

Features

Features of the voiced labial–velar 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. The type of approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement (or 'glide') of /w/ from the /u/ vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic' (it does not form the nucleus of a syllable).
• Its place of articulation is labialized velar, which means it is articulated with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate (the velum) while rounding the lips. Some languages, such as Japanese and perhaps the Northern Iroquoian languages, have a sound typically transcribed as [w] where the lips are compressed (or at least not rounded), which is a true labial–velar (as opposed to labialized velar) consonant. Close transcriptions may avoid the symbol [w] in such cases, or may use the under-rounding diacritic, [w̜].
• 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.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ауаҩы/awawë	[awaˈɥə]	'human'	See Abkhaz phonology
Alemannic	Bernese German	Giel	[ɡ̊iə̯w]	'boy'	Allophone of [l]
Arabic	Modern Standard[3]	وَرْد/ward	[ward]	'rose'	See Arabic phonology
Assamese		ৱাশ্বিংটন/Wašińton	[waʃiŋtɔn]	'Washington'
Basque		lau	[law]	'four'
Belarusian		воўк/voŭk	[vɔwk]	'wolf'	See Belarusian phonology
Bengali		ওয়াদা/wada	[wada]	'promise'	Fortitional allophone of the semivowels [o̯] and [u̯], especially in loan words. See Bengali phonology
Berber		ⴰⵡⴰⵍ/äwäl	[æwæl]	'speech'
Breton		nav	[ˈnaw]	'nine'
Bulgarian	Colloquial	лопата/lopata	[wo'patɐ]	'shovel'	Contemporary pronunciation of /ɫ/, an ongoing sound change. See Bulgarian phonology.
	Pernik dialects				This dialect has a long-standing tradition of pronouncing /ɫ/ as /w/, similar to the Polish language. Independent of the similar sound change happening in the standard language.
	Standard Bulgarian	уиски/uiski	['wisk̟i]	'whiskey'	Appears in borrowings. See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan[4]		quart	[ˈkwɑɾt]	'fourth'	Post-lexically after /k/ and /ɡ/. See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	挖/waat	[wɑːt̚˧]ⓘ	'dig'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	挖/wā	[wa̠˥]ⓘ		See Mandarin phonology
Danish		hav	[hɑw]	'ocean'	Allophone of [v]
Dutch	Colloquial	kouwe	[ˈkʌu̯wə]	'cold'	Lenited allophone of /d/ after /ʌu̯/. See Dutch phonology
	Standard Surinamese	welp	[wɛɫp]	'cub'	May also occur in this context in some continental Dutch accents and/or dialects.[5][6] Corresponds to [ʋ] in most of the Netherlands and to [β̞] in Belgium and (southern) parts of the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology
English		weep	[wiːp]	'weep'	See English phonology
French[7]		oui	[wi]	'yes'	See French phonology
German		Quelle	[kweːlə]	'source'	Some regions [citation needed]
Hawaiian[8]		wikiwiki	[wikiwiki]	'fast'	May also be realized as [v]. See Hawaiian phonology
Hebrew	Mizrahi	כּוֹחַ/kowaḥ	[ˈkowaħ]	'power'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani[9]	Hindi	विश्वास/višwas	[ʋɪʃwaːs]	'believe'	See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	višwas/وشواس
Irish		vóta	[ˈwoːt̪ˠə]	'vote'	See Irish phonology
Italian[10]		uomo	[ˈwɔːmo]	'man'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		уэ/wa	[wa]ⓘ	'you'
Kazakh		ауа/awa	[awa]	'air'
Korean		왜가리/waegari	[wɛɡɐɾi]	'heron'	See Korean phonology
Lao		ຫວານ/Van	[wäːn˨˩˦]	'sweet'	See Lao phonology
Luxembourgish[11]		zwee	[t͡swe̝ː]	'two'	Allophone of /v/ after /k, t͡s, ʃ/.[12] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay		wang	[waŋ]	'money'
Malayalam		ഉവ്വ്/uwî	[uwːɨ̆]	'Yes'	Some dialects.
Mayan	Yucatec	witz	[wit͡s]	'mountain'
Mongol		гавал/ᠭᠠᠪᠠᠯᠠ	[ɢaw̜əɮ]	'skull'
Nepali		हावा/hawa	[ɦäwä]	'wind'	See Nepali phonology
Odia[13]		ଅଗ୍ରୱାଲ୍/ogrowal	[ɔgɾɔwäl]	'Agrawal'
Pashto		ﻭﺍﺭ/war	[wɑr]	'one time'
Persian	Dari	وَرزِش/warziš	[warzɪʃ]	'sport'	may approach /ʋ/ in some regional dialects.
	Iranian Persian	نَو/now	[now]	'new'	Only as a diphthong or colloquially.
Polish[14]		łaska	[ˈwäskä]ⓘ	'grace'	See Polish phonology. Corresponds to [ɫ] in older pronunciation and eastern dialects
Portuguese[15]	Most dialects	quando	[ˈkwɐ̃du]	'when'	Post-lexically after /k/ and /ɡ/. See Portuguese phonology
		boa	[ˈbow.wɐ]	'good' (f.)	Epenthetic glide or allophone of /u/, following a stressed rounded vowel and preceding an unrounded one.[16]
	General Brazilian	qual	[ˈkwaw]	'which'	Allophone of /l/ in coda position for most Brazilian dialects.[15]
Romanian		dulău	[d̪uˈl̪əw]	'mastiff'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		волк/volk	[wou̯k]	'wolf'	Southern dialects.
Serbo-Croatian	Croatian[17]	vuk	[wûːk]	'wolf'	Allophone of /ʋ/ before /u/.[17] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		cmiique	[ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ]	'person'	Allophone of /m/
Slovene[18][19]		cerkev	[ˈt͡sèːrkəw]	'church'	Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable coda.[18][19] Voiceless [ʍ] before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology
Sotho		sewa	[ˈsewa]	'epidemic'	See Sesotho phonology
Svan		კუ̂ენ/k'wen	[kʼwen]	'marten'
Spanish[20]		cuanto	[ˈkwãn̪t̪o̞]	'as much'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		mwanafunzi	[mwɑnɑfunzi]	'student'
Swedish	Central Standard[21]				Labialized approximant consonant; allophone of /ɡ/ in casual speech before the protruded vowels /ɔ, oː/. See Swedish phonology
Tagalog		araw	[ˈɐɾaw]	'day'	See Tagalog phonology
Thai		แหวน/waen	[wɛ̌ːn]	'ring'	See Thai phonology
Vietnamese[22]	Standard	uỷ	[ʔwi˧˩]	'to delegate'	See Vietnamese phonology
	Southern	quê	[wej˧˧]	'hometown'
Ukrainian		любов/lübov	[lʲubɔw]	'love'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		gwae	[ɡwaɨ]	'woe'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		skowe	[skoːwə]	'to shove'

See also

• Voiceless labial–velar approximant
• Nasal labial–velar approximant

Notes

1. Instead of "pre-velar", it can be called "advanced velar", "fronted velar", "front-velar", "palato-velar", "post-palatal", "retracted palatal" or "backed palatal".

1. Guidelines for Transcription of English Consonants and Vowels (PDF); see the examples on the fifth page.
2. Ohala & Lorentz (1977), p. 577.
3. Watson (2002), p. 13.
4. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 55.
5. "Recording dialect from Egmond aan Zee (Bergen), North Holland)". www.meertens.knaw.nl. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
6. "Recording and video from dialect of Katwijk, South Holland". YouTube. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
7. Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 75.
8. Pukui & Elbert (1986), p. xvii.
9. Ladefoged (2005), p. 141.
10. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 117.
11. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67, 69.
12. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 69.
13. Masica (1991), p. 107.
14. Jassem (2003), p. 103.
15. Barbosa & Albano (2004), p. 230.
16. France (2004).
17. Landau et al. (1999), p. 68.
18. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 136.
19. Greenberg (2006), p. 18.
20. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
21. Engstrand (2004), p. 167.
22. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.

References

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
• Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L. (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
• France, Angela (2004). "Problemas na variante tensa da fala carioca" [Problems with tense variant of carioca speech]. DELTA: Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada (in Portuguese). 20 (spe). São Paulo: 33–58. doi:10.1590/S0102-44502004000300005. ISSN 0102-4450.
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
• Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene, Kansas: University of Kansas
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.), Blackwell
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• 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
• Ohala, John; Lorentz, James (1977), "Story of [w]: An exercise in the phonetic explanation for sound patterns" (PDF), Berkeley Linguistics Society annual meeting 3 proceedings, pp. 577–599
• Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H. (1986), Hawaiian Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, ISBN 0-8248-0703-0
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
• 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, S2CID 249404451
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
• Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
• Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.

External links

• List of languages with [w] on PHOIBLE