Voiceless labial–velar fricative

The voiceless labial–velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨xʷ⟩ or occasionally ⟨ʍ⟩. The letter ⟨ʍ⟩ was defined as a "voiceless [w]" until 1979,^[1] when it was defined as a fricative with the place of articulation of [k͡p] the same way that [w] is an approximant with the place of articulation of [ɡ͡b].^[2] The IPA Handbook describes ⟨ʍ⟩ as a "fricative" in the introduction (IPA 1999: ix) while a chapter within characterizes it as an "approximate" (IPA 1999: 136).

Voiceless labial–velar fricative
ʍ
xʷ
IPA number	169
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʍ
Unicode (hex)	U+028D
X-SAMPA	W
Braille
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Some linguists posit voiceless approximants distinct from voiceless fricatives. To them, English /ʍ/ is an approximant [w̥],^[3] a labialized glottal fricative [hʷ], or an [hw] sequence, not a velar fricative.^[4] Scots /ʍ/ has been described as a velar fricative,^[5] especially in older Scots, where it was [xw].^[6] Other linguists believe that a "voiceless approximant" is a contradiction in terms, and so [w̥] must be the same as [xʷ]. Ladefoged and Maddieson were unable to confirm that any language has fricatives produced at two places of articulation, like labial and velar.^[7] They conclude that "if it is a fricative, it is better described as a voiceless labialized velar fricative".^[8]

Features

Features of the voiceless labial–velar fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• 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.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• 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

Family	Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Eskimo-Aleut	Aleut[9]	Atkan	hwax̂	[ʍaχ]	'smoke'
		Bering	ʼЎaӽ
Celtic	Cornish	SWF	hwi	[ʍi]	'you all'
Germanic	English	Conservative Received Pronunciation[10]	whine	[ʍaɪ̯n]	'whine'	English /ʍ/ is generally a labio-velar fricative or approximant.[4] It is usually represented phonemically as /hw/, but phonetically there is not a sequence of [h] plus [w] (see English phonology). In General American[11] and New Zealand English[12] only some speakers maintain a distinction with /w/; in Europe, mostly heard in Irish and Scottish accents.[10] See English phonology and phonological history of wh.
		Cultivated South African[13]
		Conservative General American[11]
		Irish[13][14]		[ʍʌɪ̯n]
		Scottish[13][15][16]
		Southern American[17]		[ʍäːn]
		New Zealand[12][15][18]		[ʍɑe̯n]
Athabaskan	Hupa[19]		xwe꞉y	[xʷeːj]	'his property'	A voiceless labialized velar fricative.
Sino-Tibetan	Kham	Gamale Kham	ह्वा	[ʍɐ]	'tooth'	Described as an approximant.[20]
Iranian	Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	خویشک / xwîşk	[xʷɪʃk]	'sister'
		Kalhori (Southern)	خوەش / xweş	[xʷæʃ]	'nice'
Salishan	Lushootseed		dxʷʔiyb	[dxʷʔib]	'Newhalem, Washington'
Iranian	Persian	Classical Persian	خواستن / xwâstän	[xʷɑːs.ˈtan]	'to want'	In modern standard dialects of Persian, the pronunciation has evolved to a simple Voiceless velar fricative ([x]) sound
Salishan	Shuswap		secwepemctsín	[ʃəxʷəpəməxˈtʃin]	'Shuswap language'
Slavic	Slovene[21][22]		vse	[ˈʍsɛ]	'everything'	Allophone of /ʋ/ in the syllable onset before voiceless consonants, in free variation with a vowel [u]. Voiced [w] before voiced consonants.[21][22] See Slovene phonology.
Washo (isolate)			Wáʔi	[ˈxʷaʔi] or [ˈw̥aʔi]	'he's the one who's doing it'	Variously described as a labialized velar fricative or a voiceless approximant.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• hwair
• Wh (digraph)
• Wine–whine merger