A voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in a number of spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "f" sound in "face". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
Features
Features of a voiceless labiodental fricative:
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! style="width:50%;" | Notes
|-
|colspan=2| Abkhaz || /fy || || 'lightning' || See Abkhaz phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Adyghe || /tfy || || 'five' || Corresponds to [xʷ] in Kabardian and Proto-Circassian
|-
|colspan=2| Albanian || || || 'cheek' ||
|-
| Arabic || Modern Standard || /th'arf || || 'envelope' || See Arabic phonology
|-
| Armenian || Eastern || /futbol || || 'football' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Assyrian || ܦܬܐ pata || || 'face' || Used mostly by Western speakers; corresponds to in most other dialects.
|-
|colspan=2| Assamese || /borof || || 'snow/ice' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Azeri || tüfəng || || 'ɡun' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Basque || || || 'thin' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || |||| 'fan' || Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Catalan || || || 'strong' || See Catalan phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Chechen || / || || 'fax' || Used only in loanwords. There is no /f/ in Chechen; /f/ was replaced by /p/ in loanwords that contained it before increased influence from the Russian language popularized the usage of /f/.
|-
|rowspan=2| Chinese || Cantonese || / || ||rowspan=2| 'to fly' || See Cantonese phonology
|-
| Mandarin || (traditional) / 飞(simplified) / || || See Mandarin phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Coptic || /ftoow || || 'four' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Czech || || || 'to blow' || See Czech phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Dutch || || || 'bike' || See Dutch phonology
|-
| rowspan="6" | English || All dialects || fill || || 'fill' || See English phonology
|-
| Cockney || rowspan=4| think ||rowspan=4| ||rowspan=4| 'think' || rowspan="4" | Socially marked, with speakers exhibiting some free variation with (with which it corresponds to in other dialects). See th-fronting.
|-
| Many British urban dialects
|-
|Some younger East Anglian English
|-
|Some younger New Zealanders
|-
| Broad South African || myth
|[mɨf]
|'myth'
|Possible realization of /θ/, more common word-finally. See White SAE phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Esperanto || || || 'fire' || See Esperanto phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Ewe || || || 'he spit off' ||
|-
|colspan=2| French || || || 'fabulous' || See French phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Galician || || || 'spark' || See Galician phonology
|-
|colspan=2| German || || || 'bland' || See Standard German phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Goemai || f'at'
|[fat]|| 'to blow' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Greek || || || 'nature' || See Modern Greek phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Gujarati || / || || 'fruit' || See Gujarati phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Hebrew || /sofer || || 'writer' || See Modern Hebrew phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Hindustani || / /saaf || || 'clean' || See Hindustani phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Hmong || / || || 'to sue, to indict'
|-
|colspan=2| Hungarian || || || 'he/she pays attention' || See Hungarian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Indonesian || || || 'characteristic' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Italian || || || 'ghost' || See Italian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Kabardian || /fyz || || 'woman' || Corresponds to [ʂʷ] in Adyghe and Proto-Circassian
|-
|colspan=2| Kabyle || || || 'hand' |
|-
|colspan=2| Kazakh ||faqır / фақыр || || 'poor' ||
|-
|colspan="2" | Khmer || / || || 'coffee' || See Khmer phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Macedonian || /fonetika || || 'phonetics' || See Macedonian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Māori || || || 'genealogy' || Less commonly . See Māori phonology.
|-
|colspan=2| Malay || || || 'ferry' ||Only occurs in loanwords
|-
| colspan=2| Malayalam
| /falam
|
| 'fruit, result'
| Only occurs in loanwords in the standard version. ഫ is used to represent both /pʰ/ and /f/ but nowadays most people pronounce /pʰ/ as [f]. Occurs in native words in the Jeseri dialect. See Malayalam phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Maltese || || || 'rabbit' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Norwegian || || || 'filter' || See Norwegian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Persian || /foruxt |||| 'he/she sold' ||See Persian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Polish || || || 'fur' || See Polish phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Portuguese || || || 'speech' || See Portuguese phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Punjabi || ਫ਼ੌਜੀ/faujī || || 'soldier' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Romanian|| || || 'fire' || See Romanian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Russian || /orfografiya || || 'orthography' || Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Scottish Gaelic || || || 'near, close' || Loosely articulated, can resemble . See Scottish Gaelic phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Serbo-Croatian || / || || 'phase' || See Serbo-Croatian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Slovak || || || 'to blow' || See Slovak phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" |Slovene
|Standard
|
|
|'flute'
|See Slovene phonology
|-
|Some dialects
|
|
|'all (people)'
|Allophone of before voiceless obstruents in dialects with → development. See Slovene phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Somali || || || 'wart' || See Somali phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Spanish || || || 'ghost' || See Spanish phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Swahili || || || 'to die'
|-
|colspan=2| Swedish || || || 'fish' || See Swedish phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Thai || /fon || || 'rain' ||
|-
| colspan=2| Toda
| nes̲of
|
| 'moon'
|
|-
|colspan=2| Turkish || || || 'pure' || See Turkish phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Ukrainian || /fastiv || || 'Fastiv' || See Ukrainian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Vietnamese || || || 'firecracker' || See Vietnamese phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Welsh || || || 'stick' || See Welsh phonology
|-
|colspan=2| West Frisian || || || 'full' || See West Frisian phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Yi || / || || 'roast' ||
|-
| Zapotec || Tilquiapan || cafe|| || 'coffee' || Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish
|}
Voiceless labiodental approximant
A voiceless labiodental approximant is a similar sound but with less turbulent airflow. It is transcribed in IPA as .
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! style="width:50%;" | Notes
|-
|English
|Indian South African
|fair
|
|'fair'
|Described as an approximant. Corresponds to in other accents.
|}
See also
- List of phonetics topics