Voiced labial–velar approximant

The **voiced labial–velar approximant** is a consonant sound, used in some spoken languages including English. It is the sound denoted by the letter  in the English alphabet. Similarly, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is `w`. In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of the close back rounded vowel .

## Features

Features of the voiced labial–velar approximant:

- Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract enough for it to not be a vowel, but not enough to make a hissing type of noise (a fricative).
- Its place of articulation is labialized velar, which means it is produced with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate while rounding the lips.
- 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.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

## Occurrence

|Language|Word|IPA|Meaning|Notes||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Abkhaz|а**у**аҩы/auaòy||'human'|See Abkhaz phonology||||||
|Alemannic|Bernese German|||'boy'|Allophone of|||||
|Arabic|Modern Standard|/ward||'rose'|See Arabic phonology|||||
|Assamese|ৱাশ্বিংটন/washington||'Washington'|||||||
|Assyrian|ܟܬܒ̣ܐ|]|'book'|Most speakers.  and  are used in the Urmia dialects.||||||
|Basque|||'four'|||||||
|Belarusian|/voŭk||'wolf'|See Belarusian phonology||||||
|Bengali|/uada||'promise'|Allophone of  and   when preceding a vowel word-initially. See Bengali phonology||||||
|colspan="2"|Berber|/awal||'speech'||||||
|Catalan|||'fourth'|Post-lexically after  and . See Catalan phonology||||||
|Chinese|Cantonese|/||'dig'|See Cantonese phonology|||||
|Mandarin|/||See Mandarin phonology|||||||
|Danish|||'ocean'|Allophone of||||||
|Dutch|Colloquial|||'cold'|Lenited allophone of  after . See Dutch phonology|||||
|Standard Surinamese|||'cub'|May also occur in this context in some continental Dutch accents and/or dialects. Corresponds to  in most of the Netherlands and to  in Belgium and (southern) parts of the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology||||||
|English|||'weep'|See English phonology||||||
|Esperanto|||'car'|See Esperanto phonology||||||
|French|||'yes'|See French phonology||||||
|German|||'source'|Some regions||||||
|Hawaiian|||'fast'|May also be realized as . See Hawaiian phonology||||||
|Hebrew|Oriental|/kowaḥ||'power'|See Modern Hebrew phonology|||||
|rowspan=2|Hindustani|Hindi||rowspan=2||rowspan=2|'believe'|rowspan=2|See Hindustani phonology|
|Urdu||||||||||
|Irish|||'vote'|See Irish phonology||||||
|Italian|||'man'|See Italian phonology||||||
|Kabardian|/wǎ||'you'|||||||
|Korean|/||'heron'|See Korean phonology||||||
|Luxembourgish|||'two'|Allophone of  after . See Luxembourgish phonology||||||
|Malay|||'money'|||||||
|Mayan|Yucatec|**w**itz||'mountain'||||||
|Nepali|||'wind'|See Nepali phonology||||||
|Odia|ଅଗ୍ରୱାଲ୍/agrawāl||'Agrawal'|||||||
|Pashto|/war||'one time'|||||||
|Persian|Dari|/warzeš||'sport'||||||
|Colloquial|/naw|,|'new'|As a diphthong.||||||
|Polish|||'grace'|See Polish phonology. Corresponds to  in older pronunciation and eastern dialects||||||
|Portuguese|Most dialects|||'when'|Post-lexically after  and . See Portuguese phonology|||||
|||'good' (f.)|Epenthetic glide or allophone of , following a stressed rounded vowel and preceding an unrounded one.|||||||
|General Brazilian|||'which'|Allophone of  in coda position for most Brazilian dialects.||||||
|Romanian|||'mastiff'|See Romanian phonology||||||
|Serbo-Croatian|Croatian|||'wolf'|Allophone of  before . See Serbo-Croatian phonology|||||
|Seri|||'person'|Allophone of||||||
|Slovene|||'church'|Allophone of  in the syllable coda. Voiceless  before voiceless consonants. See Slovene phonology||||||
|Sotho|_se**w**a_||'epidemic'|See Sesotho phonology||||||
|Spanish|||'as much'|See Spanish phonology||||||
|Swahili|||'student'|||||||
|Swedish|Central Standard|||'go'|Labialized approximant consonant; allophone of  in casual speech before the protruded vowels . See Swedish phonology|||||
|Tagalog|_ara**w**_||'day'|See Tagalog phonology||||||
|Thai|/**_w**aen_||'ring'|||||||
|Ukrainian|/voŭk||'wolf'|See Ukrainian phonology||||||
|Vietnamese|||'week'|See Vietnamese phonology||||||
|Welsh|||'woe'|See Welsh phonology||||||
|West Frisian|||'to shove'|||||||

## Infobox (ipa)

- **above**: Voiced labial–velar approximant
- **ipa symbol**: w
- **ipa number**: 170
- **decimal**: 119
- **x-sampa**: w
- **kirshenbaum**: w
- **braille**: w