Labio-velar Approximant

Labio-velar Approximant

The (voiced) labiovelar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in certain spoken languages, including English. It is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨w⟩ in the English alphabet; likewise, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨w⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is w. In most languages it is a labialized velar approximant, and the semivocalic counterpart of the close back rounded vowel . As labio-velar consonants do not easily fit into consonant charts with only labial and velar columns, may be put in either the velar column, (bi)labial column, or both, though the latter is rare outside of the official IPA chart; the placement may have more to do with phonological criteria than phonetic ones.