Voiceless bilabial fricative

This article is about consonantal sound. For mathematical concept represented by the letter φ, see golden ratio.

The voiceless bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɸ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p\.

[edit] Features

Features of the voiceless bilabial 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 bilabial which means it is articulated with both lips.
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.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ainu		フチ	[ɸu̜tʃi]	'grandmother'
Angor		fi	[ɸi]	'body'
Ewe		éƒá	[é ɸá]	'he polished'
Itelmen		чуфчуф	[tʃuɸtʃuɸ]	'rain'
Japanese^[1]		腐敗/fuhai	[ɸɯhai]	'decay'	Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Japanese phonology
Kaingang		[ɸɨ]		'seed'
Kalupaya		[ɸɨ]		'seed'
Kwama		[kòːɸɛ́]		'basket'
Mao		[ʔɑ̄ˈɸɑ́ŋ]		'empty'
Māori		whakapapa	[ɸakapapa]	'genealogy'
Odoodee		pagai	[ɸɑgɑi]	'coconut'
Spanish	Andalusian^[2]	los viejos	[lɔ ɸjɛhɔ]	'the old ones'	Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology
Turkmen		fabrik	[ɸabrik]	'factory'

Pérez, Ramón Morillo-Velarde; Rafael Cano Aguilar & Antonio Narbona Jiménez (1998), El Español hablado en Andalucía, ISBN 84-3448-225-8
Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94-97

Consonants (List, table)