# Voiced labiodental approximant

The voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is something between an English /w/ and /v/, pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter V. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʋ⟩, a letter v with a leftward hook protruding from the upper right of the letter, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is P or v\. With an advanced diacritic, ⟨ʋ̟⟩, this letter also indicates a bilabial approximant, though the diacritic is frequently omitted because no contrast is likely.
The labiodental approximant is the typical realization of /v/ in the Indian South African variety of English. As the voiceless /f/ is also realized as an approximant ([ʋ̥]), it is also an example of a language contrasting voiceless and voiced labiodental approximants.

## Features

Features of the voiced labiodental approximant:
* Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
* Its place of articulation is labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
* Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
* 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 |
| Äiwoo | Äiwoo | nyiveli | [ɲiʋeli] | 'garden land' | |
| Armenian | Eastern | ոսկի | [ʋɔski] | 'gold' | |
| Assyrian | Assyrian | ܗܘܐ / hawa | [hɑːʋɑ] | 'wind' | Predominant in the Urmia dialects. For some speakers, [v] is used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties. |
| Catalan | Balearic | fava | [ˈfɑʋɐ] | 'bean' | Allophone of /v/. See Catalan phonology |
| Catalan | Valencian | fava | [ˈfɑʋɐ] | 'bean' | Allophone of /v/. See Catalan phonology |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 為 为 / wèi | [we̞i] [ʋêi] | 'for' | Prevalent in northern dialects. Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. |
| Chuvash | Chuvash | аван | [aʋ'an] | 'good, well' | Corresponds to /w/ in other varieties. |
| Dhivehi | Dhivehi | ވަޅު / valhu | [ʋaɭu] | 'well' (noun) | |
| Danish | Standard | véd | [ʋe̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ] | 'know(s)' | Also described as a short plosive [b̪̆]; rarely realized as a fricative [v] instead. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | wang | [ʋɑŋ] | 'cheek' | In southern dialects of the Netherlands realised as bilabial [β̞]. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Indian | vine | [ʋaɪ̯n] | 'vine' | Corresponds to a fricative [v] in other accents. |
| English | Some speakers | rine | [ʋaɪ̯n] | 'rine' | Mostly idiosyncratic but somewhat dialectal (especially in London and South East England). See English phonology and R-labialization |
| Faroese | Faroese | røða | [ˈɹøːʋa] | 'speech' | Word-initial and intervocalic allophone of /v/. In the first case, it is in a free variation with a fricative [v]. See Faroese phonology |
| Finnish | Finnish | vauva | [ˈʋɑu̯ʋɑ] | 'baby' | See Finnish phonology |
| German | Swiss | was | [ʋas] | 'what' | Corresponds to /v/ in Standard German |
| Guaraní | Guaraní | avañe'ẽ | [ʔãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ] | 'Guaraní language' | Contrasts with /w/ and /ɰ/ |
| Hawaiian | Hawaiian | wikiwiki | [ʋikiʋiki] | 'fast' | May also be realized as [w] or [v]. See Hawaiian phonology |
| Hindustani | Hindi | वाला | [ʋɑːlɑː] | (the) 'one' | Also an allophone of /w/. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Hindustani | Urdu | والا | [ʋɑːlɑː] | (the) 'one' | Also an allophone of /w/. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Italian | Some speakers | raro | [ˈʋäːʋo] | 'rare' | Rendition alternative to the standard Italian alveolar trill [r], due to individual orthoepic defects and/or regional variations that make the alternative sound more prevalent, notably in South Tyrol (among the Italian-speaking minority), Val d'Aosta (bordering with France) and in parts of the Parma province, more markedly around Fidenza. Other alternative sounds may be a uvular trill [ʀ] or a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ]. See Italian phonology. |
| Lao | Lao | ວີ / wi | [ʋíː] | 'hand fan' | May also be realized as [w]. See Lao phonology. |
| Khmer | Khmer | អាវុធ / avŭth | [ʔɑːʋut] | 'weapon' | See Khmer phonology |
| Marathi | Marathi | वजन | [ʋə(d)zən] | 'weight' | See Marathi phonology |
| Miyako | Miyako | [ʋ̩tɑ] | [ʋ̩tɑ] | 'thick' | May be syllabic. |
| Norwegian | Urban East | venn | [ʋe̞nː] | 'friend' | Sometimes realized as a fricative [v]. See Norwegian phonology |
| Nsenga | Nsenga | ŵanthu | [ʋaⁿtʰu] | 'people' | |
| Punjabi | Gurmukhi | ਵਾਲ | [ʋäːl] | 'hair' | |
| Punjabi | Shahmukhi | وال | [ʋäːl] | 'hair' | |
| Russian | Russian | волосы | [ˈʋʷo̞ɫ̪əsˠɘ] | 'hair' | Common realization of /v/; contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Serbo-Croatian | цврчак / cvrčak | [t͡sʋř̩ːt͡ʃak] | 'cricket' | /v/ is a phonetic fricative, although it has less frication than /f/. However, it does not interact with unvoiced consonants in clusters as a fricative would, and so is considered to be phonologically a sonorant (approximant). |
| Shona | Shona | vanhu | [ʋan̤u] | 'people' | Contrasts with /v/ and /w/. |
| Sinhala | Sinhala | වතුර | [ʋat̪urə] | 'water' | |
| Slovak | Slovak | voda | | 'water' | Usual realization of /v/. See Slovak phonology |
| Slovene | Slovene | veter | [ˈʋéːt̪ə̀ɾ] | 'wind' | Also described as fricative [v]. See Slovene phonology |
| Spanish | Chilean | hablar | [äʋˈläɾ] | 'to speak' | Allophone of /b/. See Spanish phonology |
| Swedish | Some speakers | vän | [ʋɛːn] | 'friend' | See Swedish phonology |
| Tamil | Tamil | வாய் | [ʋɑj] | 'mouth' | See Tamil phonology |
| Telugu | Telugu | వల | [ʋala] | 'net' |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | він | [ʋin] | 'he' | Possible prevocalic realization of /w/, most commonly before /i/. See Ukrainian phonology |
| West Frisian | West Frisian | wêr | [ʋɛːr] | 'where' | See West Frisian phonology |