Voiceless labiodental fricative

Voiceless labiodental approximant
Voiceless labiodental approximant
ʋ̥
IPA Number	150 402A
Encoding
X-SAMPA	P_0

Voiceless labiodental fricative
Voiceless labiodental fricative
f
IPA Number	128
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	f
Unicode (hex)	U+0066
X-SAMPA	f
Braille

The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in a number of spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨f⟩.

Some scholars also posit the voiceless labiodental approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as ⟨ʋ̥⟩.

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 lip and the upper teeth.
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.
Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
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		фы/fy	[fə]	'lightning'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		тфы/tfy	^ⓘ	'five'	Corresponds to [xʷ] in Kabardian and Proto-Circassian
Albanian		faqe	[facɛ]	'cheek'
Arabic	Modern Standard^[1]	ظرف/th'arf	[ðˤɑrf]	'envelope'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern^[2]	ֆուտբոլ/futbol	^ⓘ	'football'
Assyrian		ܦܬܐ pata	[fɔθɔ]	'face'	Used mostly by Western speakers; corresponds to /p/ in most other dialects.
Assamese		বৰফ/borof	[bɔɹɔf]	'snow/ice'
Azeri		tüfəng	[t̪y̆fæɲɟ]	'ɡun'
Basque		fin	[fin]	'thin'
Bengali		ফুল/ful	[ful]	'flower'	Allophone of /pʰ/. See Bengali phonology
Catalan^[3]		fort	[ˈfɔɾt]	'strong'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		факс / faks	[faks]	'fax'	Used only in loanwords. There is no /f/ in Chechen; /f/ was replaced by /p/ in loanwords that contained it before increased influence from the Russian language popularized the usage of /f/.
Chinese	Cantonese	飛 / fēi	^ⓘ	'to fly'	See Cantonese phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	飛 (traditional) / 飞(simplified) / fēi	^ⓘ	'to fly'	See Mandarin phonology
Coptic		ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ/ftoow	[ftow]	'four'
Czech		foukat	[ˈfoʊ̯kat]	'to blow'	See Czech phonology
Dutch^[4]		fiets	[fiːts]	'bike'	See Dutch phonology
English	All dialects	fill	^ⓘ	'fill'	See English phonology
	Cockney^[5]	think	[fɪŋk]	'think'	Socially marked,^[6] with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects).^[7] See th-fronting.
	Many British urban dialects^[8]
	Some younger East Anglian English
	Some younger New Zealanders^[9]^[10]
	Broad South African^[11]	myth	[mɨf]	'myth'	Possible realization of /θ/, more common word-finally. See White SAE phonology.
	Indian South African^[12]	fair	[ʋ̥eː]	'fair'	Described as an approximant. Corresponds to /f/ in other accents.
Esperanto		fajro	[ˈfajɾo]	'fire'	See Esperanto phonology
Ewe^[13]		eflen	[éflé̃]	'he spit off'
French^[14]		fabuleuse	[fäbyˈløːz̪]	'fabulous'	See French phonology
Galician		faísca	[faˈiska]	'spark'	See Galician phonology
German		fade	[ˈfaːdə]	'bland'	See Standard German phonology
Goemai		f'at'	[fat]	'to blow'
Greek		φύση / fysī	[ˈfisi]	'nature'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		ફળ / faļ	[fəɭ]	'fruit'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		סופר/sofer	[so̞fe̞ʁ]	'writer'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		साफ़ / صاف/saaf	[sɑːf]	'clean'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		figyel	[ˈfiɟɛl]	'he/she pays attention'	See Hungarian phonology
Indonesian		fajar	[fadʒar]	'dawn'	See Indonesian phonology
Italian		fantasma	[fän̪ˈt̪äzmä]	'ghost'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		фыз/fyz	[fəz]	'woman'	Corresponds to [ʂʷ] in Adyghe and Proto-Circassian
Kabyle		afus	[afus]
Kazakh		faqır / фақыр	[faqr]	'poor'
Khmer		កាហ្វេ / kahvé	[kaːfeː]	'coffee'	See Khmer phonology
Macedonian		фонетика/fonetika	[fɔnetika]	'phonetics'	See Macedonian phonology
Māori		whakapapa	[fakapapa]	'genealogy'	Less commonly [ɸ]. See Māori phonology.
Malay		feri	[feri]	'ferry'	Only occurs in loanwords
Malayalam		ഫലം/falam	[fɐlɐm]	'fruit, result'	Only occurs in loanwords in the standard version. ഫ is used to represent both /pʰ/ and /f/ but nowadays most people pronounce /pʰ/ as [f]. Occurs in native words in the Jeseri dialect.
Maltese		fenek	[fenek]	'rabbit'
Norwegian		filter	[filtɛɾ]	'filter'	See Norwegian phonology
Persian		فروخت/foruxt	[foru:χt]	'he/she sold'
Polish^[15]		futro	^ⓘ	'fur'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese^[16]		fala	[ˈfalɐ]	'speech'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਫ਼ੌਜੀ/faujī	[fɔːd͡ʒi]	'soldier'
Romanian^[17]		foc	[fo̞k]	'fire'	See Romanian phonology
Russian^[18]		орфография/orfografiya	[ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə]	'orthography'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[19]		фаза / faza	[fǎːz̪ä]	'phase'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		fúkať	[ˈfu̞ːkäc]	'to blow'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene	Standard	flavta	[ˈfláːu̯t̪à]	'flute'	See Slovene phonology
Slovene	Some dialects	vsi	[ˈfs̪î]	'all (people)'	Allophone of /v/ before voiceless obstruents in dialects with /ʋ/ → /v/ development. See Slovene phonology
Somali		feex	[fɛħ]	'wart'	See Somali phonology
Spanish^[20]		fantasma	[fã̠n̪ˈt̪a̠zma̠]	'ghost'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		kufa	[kufɑ]	'to die'
Swedish		fisk	[ˈfɪsk]	'fish'	See Swedish phonology
Thai		ฝน/fon	[fon˩˩˦]	'rain'
Toda		nes̲of	[nes̲of]	'moon'
Turkish		saf	[ˈs̟ɑf]	'pure'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian^[21]		Фастів/fastiv	[ˈfɑsʲtʲiw]	'Fastiv'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese^[22]		pháo	[faːw˧ˀ˥]	'firecracker'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		ffon	[fɔn]	'stick'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		fol	[foɫ]	'full'	See West Frisian phonology
Yi		ꃚ / fu	[fu˧]	'roast'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[23]	cafe	[kafɘ]	'coffee'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

Notes

References

Altendorf, Ulrike; Watt, Dominic (2004), "The dialects in the South of England: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 181–196, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
Britain, David (2005), "Innovation diffusion: "Estuary English" and local dialect differentiation: The survival of Fenland Englishes", Linguistics, 43 (5): 995–1022, doi:10.1515/ling.2005.43.5.995, S2CID 144652354
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
Clark, Lynn; Trousdale, Graeme (2010), "A cognitive approach to quantitative sociolinguistic variation: Evidence from th-fronting in Central Scotland", in Geeraerts, Dirk; Kristiansen, Gitte; Peirsman, Yves (eds.), Advances in Cognitive Linguistics, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-022645-4
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
Danylenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
Gordon, Elizabeth; Maclagan, Margaret (2008), "Regional and social differences in New Zealand: Phonology", in Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd (eds.), Varieties of English, vol. 3: The Pacific and Australasia, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 64–76, ISBN 978-3110208412
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID 243772965
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
Mesthrie, Rajend (2004), "Indian South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 953–963, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID 13470826
Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
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Wood, Elizabeth (2003), "TH-fronting: The substitution of f/v for θ/ð in New Zealand English", New Zealand English Journal, 17: 50–56, S2CID 61870739

External links

List of languages with [f] on PHOIBLE

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