Voiced labial–velar approximant

The voiced labial–velar approximant is a consonant sound, used in some spoken languages including English. It is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨w⟩ in the English alphabet.^[1] Similarly, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨w⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is w. In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of the close back rounded vowel [u].

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

Features

Features of the voiced labial–velar approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract enough for it to not be a vowel, but not enough to make a hissing type of noise (a fricative).
• Its place of articulation is labialized velar, which means it is produced with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate while rounding the lips.
• 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.
• 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		ауаҩы/auaòy	[awaˈɥə]	'human'	See Abkhaz phonology
Alemannic	Bernese German	Giel	[ɡ̊iə̯w]	'boy'	Allophone of [l]
Arabic	Modern Standard[2]	وَرْد/ward	[ward]	'rose'	See Arabic phonology
Assamese		ৱাশ্বিংটন/washington	[waʃiŋtɔn]	'Washington'
Assyrian		ܟܬܒ̣ܐ ctava	[ctaːwa]	'book'	Most speakers. [v] and [ʋ] are used in the Urmia dialects.
Basque		lau	[law]	'four'
Belarusian		воўк/voŭk	[vɔwk]	'wolf'	See Belarusian phonology
Bengali		ওয়াদা/uada	[wada]	'promise'	Allophone of [o] and [u] when preceding a vowel word-initially. See Bengali phonology
Berber		ⴰⵡⴰⵍ/awal	[æwæl]	'speech'
Catalan[3]		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.[4][5] 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
Esperanto		aŭto	['awto]	'car'	See Esperanto phonology
French[6]		oui	[wi]	'yes'	See French phonology
German		Quelle	[kweːlə]	'source'	Some regions
Hawaiian[7]		wikiwiki	[wikiwiki]	'fast'	May also be realized as [v]. See Hawaiian phonology
Hebrew	Oriental	כּוֹחַ/kowaḥ	[ˈkowaħ]	'power'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani[8]	Hindi	विश्वास	[ʋɪʃwaːs]	'believe'	See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	وشواس
Irish		vóta	[ˈwoːt̪ˠə]	'vote'	See Irish phonology
Italian[9]		uomo	[ˈwɔːmo]	'man'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		уэ/wǎ	[wa]	'you'
Korean		왜가리/waegari	[wɛɡɐɾi]	'heron'	See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish[10]		zwee	[t͡swe̝ː]	'two'	Allophone of /v/ after /k, t͡s, ʃ/.[11] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay		wang	[waŋ]	'money'
Mayan	Yucatec	witz	[wit͡s]	'mountain'
Nepali		हावा	[ɦäwä]	'wind'	See Nepali phonology
Odia[12]		ଅଗ୍ରୱାଲ୍/agrawāl	[ɔgɾɔwäl]	'Agrawal'
Pashto		ﻭﺍﺭ/war	[wɑr]	'one time'
Persian	Dari	ورزش/warzeš	[wærzeʃ]	'sport'
	Colloquial	ون/naw	[now], [næw]	'new'	As a diphthong.
Polish[13]		łaska	[ˈwäskä]	'grace'	See Polish phonology. Corresponds to [ɫ] in older pronunciation and eastern dialects
Portuguese[14]	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.[15]
	General Brazilian	qual	[ˈkwaw]	'which'	Allophone of /l/ in coda position for most Brazilian dialects.[14]
Romanian		dulău	[d̪uˈl̪əw]	'mastiff'	See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian	Croatian[16]	vuk	[wûːk]	'wolf'	Allophone of /ʋ/ before /u/.[16] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		cmiique	[ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ]	'person'	Allophone of /m/
Slovene[17][18]		cerkev	[ˈt͡sèːrkəw]	'church'	Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable coda.[17][18] Voiceless [ʍ] before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology
Sotho		sewa	[ˈsewa]	'epidemic'	See Sesotho phonology
Spanish[19]		cuanto	[ˈkwãn̪t̪o̞]	'as much'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		mwanafunzi	[mwɑnɑfunzi]	'student'
Swedish	Central Standard[20]	gå	[gʷoː]	'go'	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	[wɛn˩˩˦]	'ring'
Ukrainian		вовк/voŭk	[vɔwk]	'wolf'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese[21]		tuần	[t̪wən˨˩]	'week'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		gwae	[ɡwaɨ]	'woe'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		skowe	[skoːwə]	'to shove'

Notes

1. Guidelines for Transcription of English Consonants and Vowels (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-13, retrieved 2022-07-12; see the examples on the fifth page.
2. Watson (2002), p. 13.
3. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 55.
4. "Recording dialect from Egmond aan Zee (Bergen), North Holland)". www.meertens.knaw.nl. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
5. "Recording and video from dialect of Katwijk, South Holland". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
6. Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 75.
7. Pukui & Elbert (1986), p. xvii.
8. Ladefoged (2005), p. 141.
9. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 117.
10. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67, 69.
11. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 69.
12. Masica (1991), p. 107.
13. Jassem (2003), p. 103.
14. Barbosa & Albano (2004), p. 230.
15. France (2004).
16. Landau et al. (1999), p. 68.
17. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 136.
18. Greenberg (2006), p. 18.
19. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
20. Engstrand (2004), p. 167.
21. 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, archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26, retrieved 2022-07-12
• 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.