Voiceless bilabial fricative

Voiceless bilabial approximant
Voiceless bilabial approximant
ɸ˕
Audio sample
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Voiceless bilabial fricative
Voiceless bilabial fricative
ɸ
IPA number	126
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɸ
Unicode (hex)	U+0278
X-SAMPA	p\
Braille
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A 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 Latinized form of the Greek letter Phi.

Features

Features of a 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the median–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ainu^{[citation needed]}		フチ	[ɸu̜tʃi]	'grandmother'	Allophone of /h/ before /u/
Angor^{[citation needed]}		fi	[ɸi]	'body'
Bengali	Eastern dialects	ফল	[ɸɔl]	'fruit'	Allophone of /f/ in some eastern dialects; regular allophone of /pʰ/ in western dialects
Damin		fiwi	[ɸiwi]	'boomerang'
English	Scouse	^{[example needed]}			Allophone of /p/. See British English phonology^[1]
Ewe^[2]		éƒá	[éɸá]	'he polished'	Contrasts with /f/
Italian	Tuscan^[3]	i capitani	[iˌhäɸiˈtäːni]	'the captains'	Postvocalic allophone of /p/.^[3] See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia.
Itelmen		чуфчуф	[tʃuɸtʃuɸ]	'rain'
Japanese^[4]		腐敗 / fuhai	[ɸɯhai]	'decay'	Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Japanese phonology
Kaingang		fy	[ɸɨ]	'seed'
Korean		후두개 / hudugae	[ɸʷudugɛ]	'epiglottis'	Allophone of /h/ before /u/ and /w/. See Korean phonology
Kwama^{[citation needed]}		[kòːɸɛ́]		'basket'
Māori		whakapapa	[ɸakapapa]	'genealogy'	Now more commonly /f/ due to the influence of English. See Māori phonology.
Nepali		बाफ	[bäɸ]	'vapour'	Allophone of /pʰ/. See Nepali phonology
Odoodee^{[citation needed]}		pagai	[ɸɑɡɑi]	'coconut'
Okinawan		fifaci	[ɸiɸatɕi]	'type of spice'
Spanish	Some dialects ^[5]^[6]	fuera	[ˈɸwe̞ɾa̠]^ⓘ	'outside'	Non-standard variant of /f/. See Spanish phonology
	North-Central Peninsular^[7]	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.
	Southern Peninsular^[8]	los vuestros	[lɔh ˈɸːwɛhtːɾɔh]	'yours'	It varies with [βː] in some accents. Allophone of /b/ after /s/.
Shompen^[9]		kofeoi	[koɸeoi]	'bench'
Sylheti		ꠙꠥꠀ/fua	[ɸua]	'boy'
Tahitian		ʻōfī	[ʔoːɸiː]	'snake'	Allophone of /f/
Taruma^[10]		fwa	[ɸʷa]	'fire'
Turkish	Some speakers^[11]	ufuk	[u̞ˈɸu̞k]^ⓘ	'horizon'	Allophone of /f/ before rounded vowels and, to a lesser extent, word-finally after rounded vowels.^[11] See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		fabrik	[ɸabrik]	'factory'
Yalë		dife	[diɸe]	'village'

Voiceless bilabial approximant

A voiceless bilabial approximant is a similar sound with less turbulent airflow. The IPA has no dedicated symbol that represents this sound, but it may be transcribed as ⟨ɸ̞⟩ (a lowered [ɸ]), or equivalently ⟨ɸ˕⟩ (with the obsolete adjacent diacritic) to avoid clash with the ascender and descender.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Kamasau^[12]		ngape	[ˈŋɑɸ̞e]	'bone'	Allophone of the voiceless bilabial phoneme, described by different authors as either /ɸ/ or /p/. In free variation with [b, p, pʰ, p̆, ɸ, ɸ̞], depending on the consonant position and dialect.
Mazatec	Mazatlán^[13]	[ɸ̞ī]		'go'	Primary realization of /β̞/ when pre-aspirated.

References

↑ Watson, Kevin (2007). Illustrations of the IPA: Liverpool English (Cambridge University Press ed.). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37. pp. 351–360.
↑ Ladefoged (2005:156)
1 2 Hall (1944:75)
↑ Okada (1999:118)
↑ Boyd-Bowman (1953:229)
↑ Cotton & Sharp (1988:15)
↑ "Coda Obstruents and Local Constraint Conjunction in North-Central Peninsular Spanish" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-04-21.
↑ Pérez, Aguilar & Jiménez (1998:225–228)
↑ "The language of the Shom Pen: a language isolate in the Nicobar Islands" (PDF). Mother Tongue. 12: 179–202.
↑ Serke, Anna K. (2022). A description of Taruma phonology (Thesis). Universitat Leiden.
1 2 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6)
↑ Holt, Charles; Sanders, Joy (2023). Allophonic Variation in Voiceless Bilabials in Kamasau (PDF). DIAL Conference Proceedings. Dallas: Dallas International University. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
↑ Klint, Ryan David, Non-modal voicing as morphemic features in Íénná, Mazatec of Mazatlán Villa de Flores, SIL International, retrieved 3 June 2026

Sources

Boyd-Bowman, Peter (1953), "Sobre la pronunciación del español en el Ecuador", Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica, 7: 221–233, doi:10.24201/nrfh.v7i1/2.310
Cotton, Eleanor Greet; Sharp, John (1988), Spanish in the Americas, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 978-0-87840-094-2
Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
Hall, Robert A. Jr. (1944). "Italian phonemes and orthography". Italica. 21 (2). American Association of Teachers of Italian: 72–82. doi:10.2307/475860. JSTOR 475860.
Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
Pérez, Ramón Morillo-Velarde; Aguilar, Rafael Cano; Jiménez, Antonio Narbona (1998), El Español hablado en Andalucía, Editorial Ariel, ISBN 84-344-8225-8

External links

List of languages with [ɸ] on PHOIBLE

[1] Watson, Kevin (2007). Illustrations of the IPA: Liverpool English (Cambridge University Press ed.). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37. pp. 351–360.

[2] Ladefoged (2005:156)

[hall-3] 1 2 Hall (1944:75)

[4] Okada (1999:118)

[5] Boyd-Bowman (1953:229)

[6] Cotton & Sharp (1988:15)

[7] "Coda Obstruents and Local Constraint Conjunction in North-Central Peninsular Spanish" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-04-21.

[8] Pérez, Aguilar & Jiménez (1998:225–228)

[9] "The language of the Shom Pen: a language isolate in the Nicobar Islands" (PDF). Mother Tongue. 12: 179–202.

[Serke22-10] Serke, Anna K. (2022). A description of Taruma phonology (Thesis). Universitat Leiden.

[gk6-11] 1 2 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6)

[12] Holt, Charles; Sanders, Joy (2023). Allophonic Variation in Voiceless Bilabials in Kamasau (PDF). DIAL Conference Proceedings. Dallas: Dallas International University. Retrieved 3 June 2026.

[13] Klint, Ryan David, Non-modal voicing as morphemic features in Íénná, Mazatec of Mazatlán Villa de Flores, SIL International, retrieved 3 June 2026

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