Voiced labial–velar approximant

In today's world, Voiced labial–velar approximant has taken a leading role both in everyday life and in the professional sphere. With the advancement of technology and globalization, Voiced labial–velar approximant has become a topic of constant interest, generating debates, research and new ways of approaching it. From its influence on society to its implications on the economy, Voiced labial–velar approximant has impacted in various ways, transforming not only the way we interact, but also the way we think and relate to the environment. In this article, we will explore some of the most relevant facets of Voiced labial–velar approximant, analyzing its importance and its evolution over time.

Voiced labial–velar approximant
w
IPA Number170
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)w
Unicode (hex)U+0077
X-SAMPAw
Braille⠺ (braille pattern dots-2456)
Compressed labial–velar approximant
ɰᵝ

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; likewise, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is w, or rarely , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is w. In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of the close back rounded vowel . 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.

Some languages have a voiced labial–prevelar approximant, 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 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 in such cases, or may use the under-rounding diacritic, .
  • 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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abkhaz ауаҩы/awawë 'human' See Abkhaz phonology
Alemannic Bernese German Giel 'boy' Allophone of [l]
Arabic Modern Standard وَرْد/ward 'rose' See Arabic phonology
Assamese ৱাশ্বিংটন/Wašińton 'Washington'
Basque lau 'four'
Belarusian воўк/vowk 'wolf' See Belarusian phonology
Bengali ওয়াদা/wada 'promise' Allophone of [o] and [u] when preceding a vowel word-initially. See Bengali phonology
Berber ⴰⵍ/äwäl 'speech'
Breton nav 'nine'
Bulgarian Colloquial лопата/lopata '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 'whiskey' Appears in borrowings. See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan quart 'fourth' Post-lexically after /k/ and /ɡ/. See Catalan phonology
Chinese Cantonese /waat 'dig' See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin /wā See Mandarin phonology
Danish hav 'ocean' Allophone of [v]
Dutch Colloquial kouwe 'cold' Lenited allophone of /d/ after /ʌu̯/. See Dutch phonology
Standard Surinamese welp 'cub' May also occur in this context in some continental Dutch accents and/or dialects. Corresponds to [ʋ] in most of the Netherlands and to [β̞] in Belgium and (southern) parts of the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology
English weep 'weep' See English phonology
French oui 'yes' See French phonology
German Quelle 'source' Some regions [citation needed]
Hawaiian wikiwiki 'fast' May also be realized as . See Hawaiian phonology
Hebrew Mizrahi כּוֹחַ/kowaḥ 'power' See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani Hindi विश्वास/višwas 'believe' See Hindustani phonology
Urdu višwas/وشواس
Irish vóta 'vote' See Irish phonology
Italian uomo 'man' See Italian phonology
Kabardian уэ/wa 'you'
Kazakh ауа/awa 'air'
Korean 왜가리/wägari 'heron' See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish zwee 'two' Allophone of /v/ after /k, t͡s, ʃ/. See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay wang 'money'
Malayalam ഉവ്വ്/uwî 'Yes' Some dialects.
Mayan Yucatec witz 'mountain'
Nepali हावा/hawa 'wind' See Nepali phonology
Odia ଅଗ୍ରୱାଲ୍/ogrowal 'Agrawal'
Pashto ﻭﺍﺭ/war 'one time'
Persian Dari وَرزِش/warziš 'sport' may approach /ʋ/ in some regional dialects.
Iranian Persian نَو/now 'new' Only as a diphthong or colloquially.
Polish łaska 'grace' See Polish phonology. Corresponds to in older pronunciation and eastern dialects
Portuguese Most dialects quando 'when' Post-lexically after /k/ and /ɡ/. See Portuguese phonology
boa 'good' (f.) Epenthetic glide or allophone of /u/, following a stressed rounded vowel and preceding an unrounded one.
General Brazilian qual 'which' Allophone of /l/ in coda position for most Brazilian dialects.
Romanian dulău 'mastiff' See Romanian phonology
Russian волк/volk 'wolf' Southern dialects.
Serbo-Croatian Croatian vuk 'wolf' Allophone of /ʋ/ before /u/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri cmiique 'person' Allophone of /m/
Slovene cerkev 'church' Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable coda. Voiceless [ʍ] before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology
Sotho sewa 'epidemic' See Sesotho phonology
Svan უ̂ენ/k'wen 'marten'
Spanish cuanto 'as much' See Spanish phonology
Swahili mwanafunzi 'student'
Swedish Central Standard Labialized approximant consonant; allophone of /ɡ/ in casual speech before the protruded vowels /ɔ, oː/. See Swedish phonology
Tagalog araw 'day' See Tagalog phonology
Thai แห /wén 'ring'
Vietnamese tuần 'week' See Vietnamese phonology
Ukrainian любов/lübov 'love' See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh gwae 'woe' See Welsh phonology
West Frisian skowe 'to shove'

See also

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. ^ a b Barbosa & Albano (2004), p. 230.
  16. ^ France (2004).
  17. ^ a b Landau et al. (1999), p. 68.
  18. ^ a b Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 136.
  19. ^ a b 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

External links