Voiceless labiodental affricate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A voiceless labiodental affricate ([p̪͡f] in IPA) is a rare consonant, which is initiated as a labiodental plosive [p̪], but released as a voiceless labiodental fricative [f].

The XiNkuna dialect of Tsonga has this affricate, as in [tiɱp̪͡fuβu] "hippos" and aspirated [ɱp̪͡fʰuka] "distance" (compare [ɱfutsu] "tortoise", which shows that the plosive is not epenthetic), as well as a voiced labiodental affricate, [b̪͡v], as in [ʃileb̪͡vu] "chin". There is no voiceless labiodental fricative [f] in this dialect of Tsonga, only a voiceless bilabial fricative, as in [ɸu] "finished". (Among voiced fricatives, both [β] and [v] occur, however.)

German has a similar sound in Pfeffer [ˈp͡fɛfˑɐ] "pepper" or Apfel [ˈapˑ͡fl̩] "apple". (Consonant length is predictable from the length of the preceding vowel in Standard German and thus not a phonemic feature; also, /p͡f/ only occurs word-initially and behind short vowels.) This differs from a true labiodental affricate in that it starts out with a "bilabial-dental" stop (the upper lip meets the lower at the same time the lower lip touches the upper teeth), but then the lower lip retracts slightly for the frication. We can find it also in Catalan, with the same graphical representation as in German: capficar [kəp͡fiˈka] "to worry".

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post-​alve​olar Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ p̪͡f Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.