Labiodental approximant

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Voiced labiodental approximant
ʋ
IPA number150
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʋ
Unicode (hex)U+028B
X-SAMPAP or v\
Braille⠦ (braille pattern dots-236) ⠧ (braille pattern dots-1236)

A voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is something between an English /w/ and /v/, 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, a letter v with a leftward hook protruding from the upper right of the letter. In some sources, this letter indicates a bilabial approximant,[1][2] though this is more accurately transcribed with an advanced diacritic, ʋ̟.

A labiodental approximant is the typical realization of /v/ in the Indian South African variety of English. As the voiceless /f/ is also realized as an approximant ([ʋ̥]), it is also an example of a language contrasting voiceless and voiced labiodental approximants.[3]

Features

Features of a voiced labiodental approximant:

Occurrence

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Äiwoo nyiveli [ɲiʋeli] 'garden land'[4]
ArmenianEastern[5]ոսկի[ʋɔski]'gold'
Assyrianܗܘܐ / hawa[hɑːʋɑ]'wind'Predominant in the Urmia dialects. For some speakers, [v] is used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties.
CatalanBalearicfava[ˈfɑʋɐ]'bean'Allophone of /v/.[6] See Catalan phonology
Valencian[6]
Chinese Mandarin

/ wèi

[we̞i]

[ʋêi]

'for' Prevalent in northern dialects. Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. See Mandarin Phonology
Chuvash аван [aʋ'an] 'good, well' Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties.
Dhivehi ވަޅު / valhu [ʋaɭu] 'well' (noun) See Dhivehi Phonology
DanishStandard[7]véd[ʋe̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ]'know(s)'Realization of the phoneme /v/; may also be realized as [ʊ̯].[8] See Danish phonology
DutchStandardwang[ʋɑŋ]'cheek'Realised as bilabial in southern european dialects [β̞]. See Dutch phonology
EnglishIndian[3]vine [ʋaɪ̯n]'vine'Corresponds to a fricative [v] in other accents.
Some Cockney speakersrine'rine'Mostly idiosyncratic but somewhat dialectal[9] (especially in London and South East England). See English phonology and R-labialization
Faroese[10]ða[ˈɹøːʋa]'speech'Word-initial and intervocalic allophone of /v/. In the first case, it is in a free variation with a fricative [v].[10] See Faroese phonology
Finnishvauva[ˈʋɑu̯ʋɑ]'baby'See Finnish phonology
GermanSwisswas[ʋas]'what'Corresponds to /v/ in Standard German.[11]
Guaraníavañe'ẽ[ʔãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ]'Guaraní language'Contrasts with /w/ and /ɰ/
Hawaiianwikiwiki[ʋikiʋiki]'fast'May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hawaiian phonology
Hindustani Hindiवाला[ʋɑːlɑː](the) 'one'May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hindustani phonology.
Urdu والا
ItalianSome speakers[12]raro[ˈʋäːʋo]'rare'Rendition alternative to the standard Italian alveolar trill [r], due to individual orthoepic defects and/or regional variations that make the alternative sound more prevalent, notably in South Tyrol (among the Italian-speaking minority), Val d'Aosta (bordering with France) and in parts of the Parma province, more markedly around Fidenza. Other alternative sounds may be a uvular trill [ʀ] or a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ].[12] See Italian phonology.
Icelandic[13]lofa[lo̝͡ɔ(ː)ʋä]'intr. to promise/ tr. to praise'Weakly articulated, traditionally described as a fricative /v/ (which it is in free variation with).[13][14] See Icelandic phonology
Laoວີ / wi[ʋíː]'hand fan'May also be realized as [w]. See Lao phonology.
Khmerអាវុធ / avŭth[ʔɑːʋut]'weapon'See Khmer phonology
Malayalam /vala [ʋɐlɐ] 'net' See Malayalam phonology
Marathiजन[ʋə(d)zən]'weight'See Marathi phonology
Miyako[15][ʋ̩tɑ]'thick'May be syllabic.
NorwegianUrban East[16][17][a] verbo[ˈʋæ̀ɾbǒ]'verb's principal parts'Sometimes realized as a fricative [v].[17][18] See Norwegian phonology
Nsengaŵanthu[ʋaⁿtʰu]'people'
Punjabi Gurmukhiਵਾਲ[ʋäːl]'hair'Also an allophone of /v/ and /w/.
Shahmukhi وال
Russian[19]вода[ʋʷɐ'dä]'water'Common realization of /v/; contrasts with palatalized form.[19] See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatianветар / vetar[ˈʋɛ́tɐ̀r]'wind'/v/ is a phonetic fricative, although it has less frication than /f/. However, it does not interact with unvoiced consonants in clusters as a fricative would, and so is considered to be phonologically a sonorant (approximant).[20][21] See Serbo-Croatian Phonology
Shonavanhu[ʋan̤u]'people'Contrasts with /v/ and /w/.
Sinhala තුර [ʋat̪urə] 'water'
Slovak[22]vietor[ˈʋi̯e̞tɔr]'wind'Usual realization of /v/.[22] See Slovak phonology
Slovene[23]veter[ˈʋéːt̪ə̀ɾ]'wind'Also described as fricative [v].[24][25] See Slovene phonology
Spanish[26] Chilean hablar [äʋˈläɾ] 'to speak' Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology
SwedishSome speakersvalvet[ˈʋal̪ˑ˨˥˩ʋɛt̪]'the vault'See Swedish phonology
Tamilவாய்[ʋɑːj]'mouth'See Tamil phonology
Telugu[ʋala]'net'
Ukrainian[27]Барвінкове[bɐɾˈʋʲinko̞βe̞]'Barvinkove'Possible prevocalic realization of /w/, most commonly before /i/.[27] See Ukrainian phonology
West Frisianwêr[ʋɛːr]'where'See West Frisian phonology

See also

References

  1. Ladefoged, Peter (1968). A Phonetic Study of West African Languages: An Auditory-instrumental Survey (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780521069632.
  2. Mathangwane, Joyce Thambole Mogatse (1996). Phonetics and Phonology of Ikalanga: A Diachronic and Synchronic Study (Thesis). Berkeley: University of California. p. 79.
  3. Mesthrie (2004:960)
  4. Næss, Åshild (2017). A short dictionary of Äiwoo. Vol. A-PL 35. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. hdl:1885/112469. ISBN 978-1-922185-37-2. OCLC 970690673.
  5. Dum-Tragut (2009:20)
  6. Saborit Vilar (2009:52)
  7. Basbøll (2005:62)
  8. Basbøll (2005:27, 66)
  9. Foulkes & Docherty (1999:?)
  10. Árnason (2011:115)
  11. Schmid, Stephan (2010). "Segmental features of Swiss German ethnolects". In Calamai, Silvia; Celata, Chiara; Ciucci, Luca (eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop "Sociophonetics, at the crossroads of speech variation, processing and communication". Edizioni della Normale. pp. 69–72. ISBN 978-88-7642-434-2. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  12. Canepari (1999), pp. 98–101.
  13. Árnason 2011, p. 106.
  14. Helgason (1991), p. ?, cited in Árnason (2011), p. 108
  15. Pellard, Thomas (19 January 2009). Why it is important to study the Ryukyuan languages: The example of Õgami Ryukyuan (PDF) (Speech). Oxford. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2015.
  16. Kristoffersen (2000:22 and 25)
  17. Vanvik (1979:41)
  18. Kristoffersen (2000:74)
  19. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)
  20. Morén (2005:5–6)
  21. Brown, Wayles; Alt, Theresa (2004). "A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian". SEELRC. Duke University.
  22. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
  23. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999:136)
  24. Priestley (2002:394)
  25. Greenberg (2006:18)
  26. Sadowsky, Scott (2010). "El alófono labiodental sonoro [v] del fonema /b/ en el castellano de Concepción (Chile): Una investigación exploratoria" (PDF). Estudios de Fonética Experimental. XIX: 231–261. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2018.
  27. Žovtobrjux & Kulyk (1965:121–122)

Bibliography