Voiceless labialized velar approximant | |||
---|---|---|---|
ʍ | |||
w̥ | |||
IPA number | 169 | ||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ʍ |
||
Unicode (hex) | U+028D | ||
X-SAMPA | W |
||
Kirshenbaum | w<vls> |
||
Braille | |||
|
|||
Sound | |||
|
The voiceless labialized velar (labiovelar) approximant (traditionally called a voiceless labiovelar fricative) is a type of consonantal sound, used in spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʍ⟩ (a rotated lowercase letter ⟨w⟩) or ⟨w̥⟩.
[ʍ] is generally called a "fricative" for historical reasons, but in English, the language that the letter ⟨ʍ⟩ is primarily used for, it is a voiceless approximant, equivalent to [w̥] or [hw̥]. On rare occasions the symbol is appropriated for a labialized voiceless velar fricative, [xʷ], in other languages.
Features of the voiceless labial-velar approximant: