Voiceless labiodental fricative

Voiceless labiodental fricative
f
IPA number	128
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	f
Unicode (hex)	U+0066
X-SAMPA	f
Kirshenbaum	f
Braille
Sound
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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⟩.

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. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		фы	[fə]	'lightning'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		тфы	[tfə]	'five'	Corresponds to [xʷ] in Kabardian and Proto-Circassian
Albanian		faqe	[facɛ]	'cheek'
Arabic	Standard[1]	ظرف	[ðˤɑrf]	'envelope'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[2]	ֆուտբոլ	[fut̪bol]	'football'
Assamese		বৰফ	[bɔɹɔf]	'snow/ice'
Basque		fin	[fin]	'thin'
Bengali		ফুল	[ful]	'flower'	Allophone of /pʰ/. See Bengali phonology
Catalan[3]		fase	[ˈfazə]	'phase'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		факс / faks	[faks]	'fax'
Chinese	Cantonese	佛/fat6	[fɐt˨]	'Buddha'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	飛 fēi	[feɪ̯˥]	'to fly'	See Mandarin phonology
Coptic		ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ	[ftow]	'four'
Czech		foukat	[ˈfoʊ̯kat]	'to blow'	See Czech phonology
Dutch[4]		fiets	[fits]	'bike'	See Dutch phonology
English	All dialects	fill	[fɪl]	'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 New Zealanders[9][10]
	Broad South African[11]				More common word-finally.
Ewe[12]		eflen	[éflé̃]	'he spit off'
French[13]		fabuleuse	[fäbyˈløːz̪]	'fabulous'	See French phonology
Galician		faísca	[faˈiska]	'spark'	See Galician phonology
German		fade	[ˈfaːdə]	'bland'	See Standard German phonology
Goemai		[fat]		'to blow'
Greek		φύση fysī	[ˈfisi]	'nature'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		ફળ/faļ	[fəɭ]	'fruit'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		סופר	[so̞fe̞ʁ]	'writer'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		साफ़/صاف	[sɑːf]	'clean'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		figyel	[fiɟɛl]	'he/she pays attention'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		fantasma	[fän̪ˈt̪äzmä]	'ghost'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		фыз	[fəz]	'woman'	Corresponds to [ʂʷ] in Adyghe and Proto-Circassian
Kabyle		afus	[afus]	'hand'
Macedonian		фонетика	[fɔnetika]	'phonetics'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		feri	[feri]	'ferry'
Maltese		fenek	[fenek]	'rabbit'
Norwegian		filter	[filtɛɾ]	'filter'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish[14]		futro	[ˈfut̪rɔ]	'fur'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[15]		fogo	[ˈfoɡʊ]	'fire'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਫ਼ੌਜੀ	[fɔːd͡ʒi]	'soldier'
Romanian[16]		foc	[fo̞k]	'fire'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[17]		орфография	[ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə]	'orthography'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Slovak		fúkať	[ˈfuːkac]	'to blow'	See Slovak phonology
Somali		feex	[fɛħ]	'wart'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[18]		fantasma	[fã̠n̪ˈt̪a̠zma̠]	'ghost'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		fisk	[ˈfɪsk]	'fish'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		saf	[säf]	'pure'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		Фастів	[ˈfɑsʲtʲiw]	'Fastiv'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese[19]		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[20]	cafe	[kafɘ]	'coffee'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

1. Thelwall (1990:37)
2. Dum-Tragut (2009:18)
3. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
4. Gussenhoven (1992:45)
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 (2005:156)
13. Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
14. Jassem (2003:103)
15. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
16. DEX Online :
17. Padgett (2003:42)
18. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
19. Thompson (1959:458–461)
20. Merrill (2008:109)

Bibliography

• 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, A handbook of varieties of English, 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, A handbook of varieties of English, 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
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
• 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, 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
• 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
• Gordon, Elizabeth; Maclagan, Margaret (2008), "Regional and social differences in New Zealand: Phonology", in Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd, Varieties of English, 3: The Pacific and Australasia, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 64–76, ISBN 3110208415
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
• 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
• 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
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505
• 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
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, 2: The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-24224-X
• Wood, Elizabeth (2003), "TH-fronting: The substitution of f/v for θ/ð in New Zealand English", New Zealand English Journal, 17: 50–56