Voiceless labial–palatal fricative

Voiceless labialized palatal fricative
Voiceless labialized palatal fricative
ɥ̊
ɸ͡ç

The voiceless labial–palatal fricative or approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in a few spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɥ̊⟩^[1] or ⟨ɸ͡ç⟩.^[2] The former – more accurately the voiceless labialized palatal fricative by those who consider it to be a fricative^[3] – is the voiceless counterpart of the voiced labial–palatal approximant. Other linguists posit voiceless approximants distinct from voiceless fricatives; to them, [ɥ̊] is a voiceless labialized palatal approximant.

Features

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.

or

Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
The place of articulation of [ɥ̊] is palatal; it is also labialized.^[3] The place of articulation of [ɸ͡ç] is palatal and bilabial.
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.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Breton			[i ˈɥ̊izin]	'her kitchen'	Described as a fricative, and as a realisation of the sequence /hɥ/.^[4]
Iaai		^{[example needed]}			Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced /ɥ/. Not protruded.^[5]
Kham	Gamale Kham	ह्व़ा	[ɥ̊ɐ]	'monkey'	Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced /ɥ/.^[6]

Notes

^ Ohala & Solé (2010), p. 43.
^ Patricia Ashby (2013) Speech Sounds. Routledge. 2nd edition, p. 82, 116
^ ^a ^b Florence Abena Dolphyne (1988) The Akan (Twi-Fante) Language: Its Sound Systems and Tonal Structure, p.44
^ Humpfreys (1971).
^ Maddieson & Anderson (1994), p. 176.
^ Wilde (2016).

References

Maddieson, Ian; Anderson, Victoria (1994), "Phonetic Structures of Iaai", UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics (87): 163–182
Ohala, John J.; Solé, Maria-Josep (2010), "Turbulence and Phonology" (PDF), in Fuchs, Susanne; Toda, Martine; Żygis, Marzena (eds.), Turbulent Sounds: An Interdisciplinary Guide, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 37–101, doi:10.1515/9783110226584.37, ISBN 978-3-11-022657-7, archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-06-03, retrieved 2021-11-28
Wilde, Christopher P. (2016), "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon", Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (9): 130–199, hdl:1885/109195