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, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p\.

[edit] 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 type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ainu	フチ	[ɸu̜tʃi]	'grandmother'
Angor	fi	[ɸi]	'body'
Ewe	éƒá	[é ɸá]	'he polished'
Itelman	чуфчуф	[tʃuɸtʃuɸ]	'rain'
Japanese	腐敗/fuhai	[ɸɯhai]	'decay'	See Japanese phonology
Kaingang	[ɸɨ]		'seed'
Kalupaya	[ɸɨ]		'seed'
Kwama	[kòːɸɛ́]		'basket'
Mao	[ʔɑ̄ˈɸɑ́ŋ]		'empty'
Māori	whakapapa	[ɸakapapa]	'genealogy'
Odoodee	pagai	[ɸɑgɑi]	'coconut'
Turkmen	fabrik	[ɸabrik]	'factory'

Consonants (List, table)