The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is f.

Features

Features of the voiceless labiodental 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 labiodental which means it is articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth.
• Its phonation type 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.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

In English

The voiceless labiodental fricative occurs in English, and it is generally spelled with the letter f except in words borrowed from Greek, where it is commonly spelled with ph.

In other languages

Some languages, such as French and German, spell it with f in most cases, but ph in Greek-based words. Others, such as Spanish, always spell it with f.

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Fricative consonants

Neznělá labiodentální frikativa | Stimmloser labiodentaler Frikativ | Consonne fricative labio-dentale sourde | Fricativa labiodentale sorda | 無声唇歯摩擦音 | Spółgłoska szczelinowa wargowo-zębowa bezdźwięczna | Fricativa labiodental surda | Consoană fricativă labiodentală surdă | Tonlös labiodental frikativa