# Voiceless bilabial fricative

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⟩, a Latinised form of the Greek letter Phi.

## 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 is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
* It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
* Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
* Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

## Occurrence

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Ainu | Ainu | フチ | [ɸu̜tʃi] | 'grandmother' | |
| Angor | Angor | fi | [ɸi] | 'body' | |
| Bengali | Eastern dialects | ফল | [ɸɔl] | 'fruit' | Allophone of /f/ in some eastern dialects; regular allophone of /pʰ/ in western dialects |
| English | Scouse | | | | Allophone of /p/. See British English phonology |
| Ewe | Ewe | éƒá | [éɸá] | 'he polished' | Contrasts with /f/ |
| Italian | Tuscan | i capitani | [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni] | 'the captains' | Intervocalic allophone of /p/. See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia. |
| Itelmen | Itelmen | чуфчуф | [tʃuɸtʃuɸ] | 'rain' | |
| Japanese | Japanese | 腐敗 / fuhai | [ɸɯhai] | 'decay' | Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Japanese phonology |
| Kaingang | Kaingang | fy | [ɸɨ] | 'seed' | |
| Korean | Korean | 후두개 / hudugae | [ɸʷudugɛ] | 'epiglottis' | Allophone of /h/ before /u/ and /w/. See Korean phonology |
| Kwama | Kwama | [kòːɸɛ́] | [kòːɸɛ́] | 'basket' | |
| Māori | Māori | whakapapa | [ɸakapapa] | 'genealogy' | Now more commonly /f/ due to the influence of English. See Māori phonology. |
| Nepali | Nepali | बाफ | [bäɸ] | 'vapour' | Allophone of /pʰ/. See Nepali phonology |
| Odoodee | Odoodee | pagai | [ɸɑɡɑi] | 'coconut' | |
| Okinawan | Okinawan | fifaci | [ɸiɸatɕi] | 'type of spice' | |
| Spanish | Some dialects | fuera | [ˈɸwe̞ɾa̠] | 'outside' | Non-standard variant of /f/. See Spanish phonology |
| Spanish | Standard European | pub | [ˈpa̠ɸ̞] | 'pub' | An approximant; allophone of /b/ before a pause. |
| Spanish | North-Central Peninsular | abdicar | [a̠ɸðiˈka̠ɾ] | 'abdicate' | Allophone of /b/ in the coda. In this dialect, the unvoiced coda obstruents - /p, t, k/ - are realized as fricatives only if they precede a voiced consonant; otherwise, they emerge as stops. |
| Spanish | Southern Peninsular | los vuestros | [lɔh ˈɸːwɛhtːɾɔh] | 'yours' | It varies with [βː] in some accents. Allophone of /b/ after /s/. |
| Shompen | Shompen | [koɸeoi] | [koɸeoi] | 'bench' | |
| Sylheti | Sylheti | ꠙꠥꠀ | [ɸua] | 'boy' | |
| Tahitian | Tahitian | ʻōfī | [ʔoːɸiː] | 'snake' | Allophone of /f/ |
| Turkish | Some speakers | ufuk | [uˈɸʊk] | 'horizon' | Allophone of /f/ before rounded vowels and, to a lesser extent, word-finally after rounded vowels. See Turkish phonology |
| Turkmen | Turkmen | fabrik | [ɸabrik] | 'factory' | |
| Yalë | Yalë | dife | [diɸe] | 'village' | |