Voiceless labiodental fricative

Voiceless labiodental fricative
f
IPA number128
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)f
Unicode (hex)U+0066
X-SAMPAf
Braille⠋ (braille pattern dots-124)

A voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in a number of spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "f" sound in "face". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨f⟩.

Features

Features of a voiceless labiodental fricative:

Occurrence

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Abkhazфы/fy[fə]'lightning'See Abkhaz phonology
Adygheтфы/tfy[tfə]ⓘ'five'Corresponds to [xʷ] in Kabardian and Proto-Circassian
Albanianfaqe[facɛ]'cheek'
ArabicModern Standardظرف/th'arf[ðˤɑrf]'envelope'See Arabic phonology
ArmenianEasternֆուտբոլ/futbol[fut̪bol]ⓘ'football'
Assyrianܦܬܐ pata[fɔθɔ]'face'Used mostly by Western speakers; corresponds to /p/ in most other dialects.
Assameseবৰফ/borof[bɔɹɔf]'snow/ice'
Azeritüfəng[t̪y̆fæɲɟ]'ɡun'
Basquefin[fin]'thin'
Bengaliফ়্যান[fæn]'fan'Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology
Catalanfort[ˈfɔɾt̪]'strong'See Catalan phonology
Chechenфакс / 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/.
ChineseCantonese飛 / fēi[fei̯˥]ⓘ'to fly'See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin飛 (traditional) / 飞(simplified) / fēi[feɪ̯˥]ⓘSee Mandarin phonology
Copticϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ/ftoow[ftow]'four'
Czechfoukat[ˈfoukat]ⓘ'to blow'See Czech phonology
Dutchfiets[fiːts]'bike'See Dutch phonology
EnglishAll dialectsfill[fɪɫ]ⓘ'fill'See English phonology
Cockneythink[fɪŋk]'think'Socially marked, with speakers exhibiting some free variation with [θ] (with which it corresponds to in other dialects). See th-fronting.
Many British urban dialects
Some younger East Anglian English
Some younger New Zealanders
Broad South Africanmyth [mɨf] 'myth' Possible realization of /θ/, more common word-finally. See White SAE phonology.
Esperantofajro[ˈfajɾo]'fire'See Esperanto phonology
Eweeflen[éflé̃]'he spit off'
Frenchfabuleuse[fäbyˈløːz̪]'fabulous'See French phonology
Galicianfaísca[faˈiska]'spark'See Galician phonology
Germanfade[ˈfaːdə]'bland'See Standard German phonology
Goemaif'at' [fat]'to blow'
Greekφύση / fysī[ˈfisi]'nature'See Modern Greek phonology
Gujaratiફળ / faļ[fəɭ]'fruit'See Gujarati phonology
Hebrewסופר/sofer[so̞fe̞ʁ]'writer'See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustaniसाफ़ / صاف/saaf[sɑːf]'clean'See Hindustani phonology
Hmong𖬌𖬜𖬵 / foob[fõ˦]'to sue, to indict'
Hungarianfigyel[ˈfiɟɛl]'he/she pays attention'See Hungarian phonology
Indonesiansifat[ˈsifät̪̚]'characteristic'
Italianfantasma[fän̪ˈt̪äzmä]'ghost'See Italian phonology
Kabardianфыз/fyz[fəz]ⓘ'woman'Corresponds to [ʂʷ] in Adyghe and Proto-Circassian
Kabyleafus[afus]
Kazakhfaqır / фақыр[faqr]'poor'
Khmerកាហ្វេ / kahvé[kaːfeː]'coffee'See Khmer phonology
Macedonianфонетика/fonetika[fɔnetika]'phonetics'See Macedonian phonology
Māoriwhakapapa[fakapapa]'genealogy'Less commonly [ɸ]. See Māori phonology.
Malayferi[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. See Malayalam phonology
Maltesefenek[fenek]'rabbit'
Norwegianfilter[filtɛɾ]'filter'See Norwegian phonology
Persianفروخت/foruxt[foɹu:xt]'he/she sold'See Persian phonology
Polishfutro[ˈfut̪rɔ]ⓘ'fur'See Polish phonology
Portuguesefala[ˈfalɐ]'speech'See Portuguese phonology
Punjabiਫ਼ੌਜੀ/faujī[fɔːd͡ʒi]'soldier'
Romanianfoc[fo̞k]'fire'See Romanian phonology
Russianорфография/orfografiya[ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə]'orthography'Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelicfaisg[faʃkʲ]'near, close'Loosely articulated, can resemble [ɸ]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatianфаза / faza[fǎːz̪ä]'phase'See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovakfúkať[ˈfu̞ːkäc]'to blow'See Slovak phonology
Slovene Standard flavta [ˈfláːu̯t̪à] 'flute' See Slovene phonology
Some dialects vsi [ˈfs̪î] 'all (people)' Allophone of /v/ before voiceless obstruents in dialects with /ʋ/ → /v/ development. See Slovene phonology
Somalifeex[fɛħ]'wart'See Somali phonology
Spanishfantasma[fã̠n̪ˈt̪a̠zma̠]'ghost'See Spanish phonology
Swahilikufa[kufɑ]'to die'
Swedishfisk[ˈfɪsk]'fish'See Swedish phonology
Thaiฝน/fon[fon˩˩˦]'rain'
Toda nes̲of [nes̲of] 'moon'
Turkishsaf[ˈs̟ɑf]'pure'See Turkish phonology
UkrainianФастів/fastiv[ˈfɑsʲtʲiw]'Fastiv'See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamesepháo[faːw˧ˀ˥]'firecracker'See Vietnamese phonology
Welshffon[fɔn]'stick'See Welsh phonology
West Frisianfol[foɫ]'full'See West Frisian phonology
Yiꃚ / fu[fu˧]'roast'
ZapotecTilquiapancafe[kafɘ]'coffee'Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

Voiceless labiodental approximant

Voiceless labiodental approximant
ʋ̥
f̞
Audio sample

A voiceless labiodental approximant is a similar sound but with less turbulent airflow. It is transcribed in IPA as ⟨ʋ̥⟩.

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
English Indian South African fair [ʋ̥eː] 'fair' Described as an approximant. Corresponds to [f] in other accents.

Voiceless dentolabial fricative

Voiceless dentolabial fricative
f͆
Audio sample

A voiceless dentolabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some dialects of Greenlandic.

Whereas a typical voiceless labiodental fricative [f] is articulated with the upper teeth contacting the lower lip, a voiceless dentolabial fricative [f͆] is articulated in the inverse direction, with the lower teeth contacting the upper lip. While the IPA has no symbol to transcribe this distinction, the extIPA uses the diacritic ⟨◌͆⟩ (the above variant of the traditional IPA symbol for dentalization ⟨◌̪⟩) to indicate dentolabial articulation in the context of labial consonants. This sound can therefore be transcribed with the symbol ⟨f͆⟩, as is used in the context of this article.

Features

The features of a voiceless dentolabial fricative are:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Greenlandic Qassimiut tassa aajufffa [tasːa aːjuf͆ːˠa] 'there it is' /ʁv/ and geminate /vː/ are pronounced as dento-labial [f͆ː] in some southern dialects. See Greenlandic phonology.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Thelwall (1990), p. 37.
  2. ↑ Dum-Tragut (2009), p. 18.
  3. ↑ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 53.
  4. ↑ Gussenhoven (1992), p. 45.
  5. ↑ Wells (1982), p. 328.
  6. ↑ Altendorf (1999), p. 7.
  7. ↑ Clark & Trousdale (2010), p. 309.
  8. ↑ Britain (2005), p. 1005.
  9. ↑ Wood (2003), p. 50.
  10. ↑ Gordon & Maclagan (2008), p. 74.
  11. ↑ Bowerman (2004), p. 939.
  12. ↑ Ladefoged (2005), p. 156.
  13. ↑ Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
  14. ↑ Jassem (2003), p. 103.
  15. ↑ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  16. ↑ DEX Online :
  17. ↑ Padgett (2003), p. 42.
  18. ↑ Oftedal (1956), p. 111.
  19. ↑ Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
  20. ↑ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
  21. ↑ Danylenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
  22. ↑ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
  23. ↑ Merrill (2008), p. 109.
  24. ↑ Mesthrie (2004), p. 960.
  25. ↑ Vebæk (2006), p. 20.

References