Labiovelar

From KneeQuickie

Labiovelar consonants are coarticulates made at the bilabial and velar places of articulation.

The most common labiovelar sound is the approximant /w/, which is the consonantal equivalent of the vowel /u/. (It is velar because /u/ is a back vowel, and labial because /u/ is rounded.) Some dialects of English also have a labiovelar fricative. Labiovelar stops occur in some African languages.

The IPA has the following symbols for labiovelar sounds:

	IPA	X-Sampa
Unvoiced fricative	/ʍ/	/W/
Voiced approximant	/w/	/w/

Other sounds are written as coarticulates, linking the corresponding velar and bilabial sounds with a tie-bar: for example, /k_p/.