Labialized velar consonant

Not to be confused with Labial–velar consonant.

A labialized velar or labiovelar is a velar consonant that is labialized, with a /w/-like secondary articulation. Examples are [kʷ, ɡʷ, xʷ, ɣʷ, ŋʷ], which are pronounced like a [k, ɡ, x, ɣ, ŋ], with rounded lips, such as the labialized voiceless velar plosive [kʷ] and labialized voiced velar plosive [ɡʷ], obstruents being common among the sounds that undergo labialization.

Labialized velar approximants

The most common labiovelar consonant is the voiced approximant [w]. It is normally a labialized velar, as is its vocalic cousin [u]. (Labialization is called rounding in vowels, and a velar place is called back.)

[w] and its voiceless equivalent are the only labialized velars with dedicated IPA symbols:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
	Voiceless labialized velar approximant	English	which	[ʍɪtʃ]1	'which'
	Labio-velar approximant		witch	[wɪtʃ]	'witch'

• ¹ - In dialects that distinguish between which and witch.

The voiceless approximant is traditionally called a "voiceless labial–velar fricative", but true doubly articulated fricatives are not known to be used in any language, as they are quite difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to distinguish.

Historical development

Labialized velars frequently derive from a plain velar followed by a rounded (labialized) vowel, such as [u] or [o]. In turn, they may sometimes develop into simple bilabial consonants. An example of this is the development of Proto-Indo-European *kʷ, *gʷ before *a or *o into Greek /p, b/, producing cognates as different as English come and basis. The full sequence is demonstrated by the Satsuma dialect of Japanese: in northern Satsuma, Standard Japanese [kue] 'eat!' has contracted to [kʷe]; in southern Satsuma, it has proceeded further to [pe].

A notable development is the initial *kʷ in Proto-Indo-European interrogative words. In English, it developed into wh or h (how), pronounced /w/ in most dialects and /h/, respectively, via Grimm's law followed by wh-cluster reductions. By contrast, in Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages, that developed into qu (later Spanish cu (cuando) and c (como)), pronounced as /kʷ/ in Latin and variously as /kw/ or /k/ in the Romance languages. See etymology of English interrogative words for details. The English phonemic spelling kw for qu (as in kwik) echoes its origin.

See also: P-Celtic and Q-Celtic languages

See also

• Co-articulated consonant
• Doubly articulated consonant
• Voiced bilabial fricative
• Voiceless bilabial fricative