The voiceless labiovelar approximant (traditionally called a voiceless labiovelar 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 W.

Doubly articulated fricatives are very difficult to pronounce, and none has been confirmed of any language. is generally called a "fricative" for historical reasons, but in English, the language that the symbol is primarily used for, it is a voiceless approximant, equivalent to . On rare occasions the symbol is appropriated for a labialized velar fricative, .

Features

Features of the voiceless labial-velar approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a channel at the place of articulation that is not narrow enough to cause turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is labialized velar, which means it is articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) raised toward the soft palate (the velum) and the lips rounded.
• 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 labial-velar approximant occurs in some English dialects that distinguish between the words whine and wine; it is the sound denoted by the letters 'wh'. In other dialects which maintain this distinction the letters 'wh' represent the consonant cluster /hw/.

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• hwair
• wh

Approximants | Fricative consonants

Stimmloser labiovelarer Frikativ | Consonne fricative labio-vélaire sourde