Voiceless labiodental fricative

The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonant. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨f⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is ⟨f⟩. The English language has this sound, and it is the sound represented by 'f' in fear and face.

Voiceless labiodental fricative
f
IPA number	128
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	f
Unicode (hex)	U+0066
X-SAMPA	f
Kirshenbaum	f
Sound

Features

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. It means that we produce this sound by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
• Its phonation is voiceless. It means that we produce this sound 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.
• We produce it at labiodental. It means that we produce this sound with the lower lips and the upper teeth.
• Its behavior is fricative. It means that we produce this sound by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, to make turbulence.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning
Abkhaz		фы/fy	[fə]	'lightning'
Adyghe		тфы/tfy	[tfə]	'five'
Albanian		faqe	[facɛ]	'cheek'
Arabic	Modern Standard	ظرف/th'arf	[ðˤɑrf]	'envelope'
Armenian	Eastern	ֆուտբոլ/futbol	[fut̪bol]	'football'
Assyrian		ܦܬܐ pata	[fɔθɔ]	'face'
Assamese		বৰফ/borof	[bɔɹɔf]	'snow/ice'
Azeri		tüfəng	[t̪y̆fæɲɟ]	'ɡun'
Basque		fin	[fin]	'thin'
Bengali		ফুল/ful	[ful]	'flower'
Catalan		fort	[ˈfɔɾt]	'strong'
Chechen		факс / faks	[faks]	'fax'
Chinese	Cantonese	飛 / fēi	[fei̯˥]	'to fly'
	Mandarin	飛 (traditional) / 飞(simplified) / fēi	[feɪ̯˥]
Coptic		ϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ/ftoow	[ftow]	'four'
Czech		foukat	[ˈfoʊ̯kat]	'to blow'
Dutch		fiets	[fits]	'bike'
English	All dialects	fill	[fɪɫ]	'fill'
	Cockney	think	[fɪŋk]	'think'
	Many British urban dialects
	Some younger New Zealanders
	Broad South African
	Indian South African	fair	[ʋ̥eː]	'fair'
Esperanto		fajro	[ˈfajɾo]	'fire'
Ewe		eflen	[éflé̃]	'he spit off'
French		fabuleuse	[fäbyˈløːz̪]	'fabulous'
Galician		faísca	[faˈiska]
German		fade	[ˈfaːdə]	'bland'
Goemai		f'at'	[fat]	'to blow'
Greek		φύση / fysī	[ˈfisi]
Gujarati		ફળ / faļ	[fəɭ]	'fruit'
Hebrew		סופר/sofer	[so̞fe̞ʁ]	'writer'
Hindustani		साफ़ / صاف/saaf	[sɑːf]	'clean'
Hungarian		figyel	[ˈfiɟɛl]	'he/she pays attention'
Indonesian		fajar	[fadʒar]	'dawn'
Italian		fantasma	[fän̪ˈt̪äzmä]	'ghost'
Kabardian		фыз/fyz	[fəz]	'woman'
Kabyle		afus	[afus]	'hand'
Khmer		កាហ្វេ / <span title=" transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">kahvé	[kaːfeː]	'coffee'
Macedonian		фонетика/fonetika	[fɔnetika]	'phonetics'
Māori		whakapapa	[fakapapa]	'genealogy'
Malay		feri	[feri]	'ferry'
Maltese		fenek	[fenek]	'rabbit'
Norwegian		filter	[filtɛɾ]	'filter'
Persian		فکر/fekr	[fekr]	'thought'
Polish		futro	[ˈfut̪rɔ]	'fur'
Portuguese		fala	[ˈfalɐ]	'speech'
Punjabi		ਫ਼ੌਜੀ/faujī	[fɔːd͡ʒi]	'soldier'
Romanian		foc	[fo̞k]	'fire'
Russian		орфография/orfografiya	[ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə]	'orthography'
Serbo-Croatian		фаза / faza	[fǎːz̪ä]	'phase'
Slovak		fúkať	[ˈfu̞ːkätɕ]	'to blow'
Somali		feex	[fɛħ]	'wart'
Spanish		fantasma	[fã̠n̪ˈt̪a̠zma̠]	'ghost'
Swahili		kufa	[kufɑ]	'to die'
Swedish		fisk	[ˈfɪsk]	'fish'
Thai		ฝน/fon	[fon˩˩˦]	'rain'
Turkish		saf	[säf]	'pure'
Ukrainian		Фастів/fastiv	[ˈfɑsʲtʲiw]	'Fastiv'
Vietnamese		pháo	[faːw˧ˀ˥]	'firecracker'
Welsh		ffon	[fɔn]	'stick'
West Frisian		fol	[foɫ]	'full'
Yi		ꃚ / fu	[fu˧]	'roast'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	cafe	[kafɘ]	'coffee'

References

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