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Voiceless labialized velar approximant

Voiceless labialized velar approximant
ʍ
IPA number 169
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ʍ
Unicode (hex) U+028D
X-SAMPA W
Kirshenbaum w<vls>
Braille ⠖ (braille pattern dots-235) ⠺ (braille pattern dots-2456)
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 ⟨⟩.

[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:


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Wikipedia

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