Voiceless labiodental fricative

IPA – number	128
IPA – text	f
IPA – image
Entity	f
X-SAMPA	f
Kirshenbaum	f
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is f, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol 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 lips and the upper teeth.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		фы	[fə]	'lightning'	See Abkhaz phonology
Albanian		faqe	[facɛ]	'cheek'
Arabic	Standard[1]	ظرف	[ðˤɑrf]	'envelope'	See Arabic phonology
Catalan[2]		fletxa	[ˈfletɕə]	'arrow'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		факс/faks	[faks]	'fax'
Chinese	Mandarin	飛/fēi	[fei˥˥]	'to fly'	See Standard Mandarin
Coptic		ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ	[ftow]	'four'
Czech		foukat	[foʊ̯kat]	'to blow'	See Czech phonology
Dutch[3]		fiets	[fits]	'bike'	See Dutch phonology
English		fill	[fɪl]	'fill'	See English phonology
Ewe[4]		?	[éfá]	'he was cold'
French[5]		fabuleuse	[fabyløz]	'fabulous'	See French phonology
German		fade	[faːdə]	'insipid'	See German phonology
Goemai		[fat]		'to blow'
Greek		φύση	[ˈfis̺i]	'nature'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		figyel	[fiɟɛl]	'he/she pays attention'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		fantasma	[fanˈtazma]	'ghost'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		фыз	[fɨz]	'woman'
Kabyle		afus	[afus]	'hand'
Maltese		fenek	[fenek]	'rabbit'
Norwegian		filter	[filtɛɾ]	'filter'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish[6]		futro	[ˈfutrɔ] (help·info)	'fur'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[7]		fogo	[ˈfoɡu]	'fire'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian[8]		верёвка	[vʲɪˈrʲofkə]	'rope'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Slovak		fúkať	[fuːkac]	'to blow'
Somali		feex	[fɛħ]	'wart'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[9]		fantasma	[fãnˈtazma]	'ghost'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		fisk	[ˈfɪsk]	'fish'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		saf	[säf]	'pure'	See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese		phu	[fu]	'coolie'	See Vietnamese phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[10]	cafe	[kafɘ]	'coffee'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76 
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45-47 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107 
• 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 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquipan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107-114 
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39-87 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41