A voiced labial–velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is the sound denoted by the letter in the English alphabet;; see the examples on the fifth page. likewise, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , or occasionally broken down as . In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of a close back rounded vowel . In inventory charts of languages with other labialized velar consonants, will be placed in the same column as those consonants. When consonant charts have only labial and velar columns, may be placed in the velar column, labial column, or both. The placement may have more to do with convenience or phonological criteria than with phonetics.
For a labialized post-palatal approximant—sometimes also described as a voiced labial–prevelar approximant—which is more fronted in the place of articulation than a prototypical labial–velar approximant, see .
Features Features of a voiced labial–velar approximant:
The type of approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement (or 'glide') of from the vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic' (it does not form the nucleus of a syllable). Some languages, such as Japanese and perhaps the Northern Iroquoian languages, have a sound typically transcribed as where the lips are compressed, or in some cases may not have labial features at all. Close transcriptions may avoid the symbol in such cases and instead use , or may use the under-rounding diacritic .
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Abkhaz ауаҩы / / 'human' See Abkhaz phonology Adyghe / 'you (singular)' See Adyghe phonology Alemannic Bernese 'boy' Allophone of Arabic Modern Standard / 'rose' See Arabic phonology Assamese / 'Washington' Basque 'four' Belarusian / 'wolf' See Belarusian phonology Bengali / 'promise' Fortitional allophone of the semivowels and , especially in loan words. See Bengali phonology Berber / 'speech' Breton 'nine' Bulgarian Colloquial / 'shovel' Contemporary pronunciation of , an ongoing sound change. See Bulgarian phonology. Pernik dialects This dialect has a long-standing tradition of pronouncing as , similar to the Polish language. Independent of the similar sound change happening in the standard language. Standard Bulgarian / 'whiskey' Appears in borrowings. See Bulgarian phonology Burmese / 'belief' Catalan Most dialects 'fourth' Post-lexically after and . See Catalan phonology 'greasy' Semivowel. See Catalan phonology Chinese Cantonese / 'dig' See Cantonese phonology Mandarin / See Mandarin phonology Danish 'ocean' Allophone of Dutch Colloquial 'cold' Lenited allophone of after . Corresponds to in the standard language (cf. ). See Dutch phonology Standard Surinamese 'cub' May also occur in this context in some continental Dutch accents and/or dialects. Corresponds to in most of the Netherlands and to in Belgium and (southern) parts of the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology English 'weep' See English phonology French 'yes' See French phonology German 'source' Some regions Hawaiian 'fast' May also be realized as . See Hawaiian phonology Hebrew Mizrahi / 'power' See Modern Hebrew phonology Hindustani Hindi / 'belief' Allophone of . See Hindustani phonology Urdu / Irish 'vote' See Irish phonology Italian 'man' See Italian phonology Kabardian / 'you (singular)' Karakalpak / 'birth' Kazakh / 'air' Korean / 'heron' See Korean phonology Kyrgyz / 'air' Lenited allophone of . See Kyrgyz phonology Lao / 'sweet' See Lao phonology Luxembourgish 'two' Allophone of after . See Luxembourgish phonology Malay 'money' Malayalam / 'yes' around rounded vowels for some speakers. Mayan Yucatec 'mountain' Mongolian / / 'skull' Nepali / 'wind' See Nepali phonology Nuxalk 'to kill' Odia / 'Agrawal' Pashto / 'one time' Persian Dari / 'sport' May approach in some regional dialects. Farsi / 'new' Only in a diphthong or colloquially. Polish 'grace' See Polish phonology. Corresponds to in older pronunciation and eastern dialects. Portuguese Most dialects 'when' Post-lexically after and . See Portuguese phonology 'good' (f.) Epenthetic glide or allophone of , following a stressed rounded vowel and preceding an unrounded one. General Brazilian 'which' Allophone of in coda position for most Brazilian dialects. Romanian 'mastiff' See Romanian phonology Russian / 'wolf' Western dialects. Serbo-Croatian Croatian 'wolf' Allophone of before . See Serbo-Croatian phonology Slovene 'church' Allophone of in the syllable coda. Voiceless before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology Sotho 'epidemic' See Sesotho phonology Svan / 'marten' Spanish Standard 'as much' Some dialects 'Nahuatl' May also be fricative ~ . See Spanish phonology 'that egg' Swahili 'student' Swedish Central Standard Labialized approximant consonant; allophone of in casual speech before the protruded vowels . See Swedish phonology Tagalog 'day' See Tagalog phonology Thai / 'ring' See Thai phonology Toki Pona wile 'to want' Vietnamese Standard 'to delegate' See Vietnamese phonology Southern 'hometown' Ukrainian / 'love' See Ukrainian phonology Welsh 'woe' See Welsh phonology West Frisian 'to shove'
Nasal
A nasalized voiced labial–velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is typically (a nasalized ), though for preciseness (a nasalized and labialized ) may also be seen.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Guaraní Paraguayan 'in Guarani' Allophone of in the digraph , nasalized due to vowel–consonant harmony. Kaingang 'to see' Possible word-initial realization of before a nasal vowel. Polish 'they are' See Polish phonology Portuguese Most dialects 'saint', 'they are' Allophone of after nasal vowels. See Portuguese phonology Some dialects 'smuggling', 'jobbery','stash' Non-syllabic allophone of between nasal sounds.Marathi / 'doubt' Anuswara (ṁ) preceding (r), (v), (ś), (ṣ), (s), (h) or (jñ/dnya) is rendered as 'w̃'. Seri 'person' Allophone of . Shipibo 'parrot' Allophone of after nasal vowels. Telugu / 'acid' Common colloquial pronunciation of intervocalic and final m. May also be a .a study of telugu regional and social dialects: a prosodic analysis by j. venkateswara sastry Uwa 'yellow' Yoruba 'they' Allophone of before nasal vowels.
See also Voiceless labial–velar approximant Voiced bilabial approximant Voiced bilabial flap
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