Voiceless labiodental affricate

Voiceless labiodental affricate
p̪f
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A voiceless labiodental affricate ([p̪͡f] in IPA) is a rare affricate consonant that is initiated as a labiodental stop [p̪] and released as a voiceless labiodental fricative [f].

The XiNkuna dialect of Tsonga has this affricate, as in [tiɱp̪͡fuβu] "hippopotamuses" and aspirated [ɱp̪͡fʰuka] "distance" (compare [ɱfutsu] "tortoise", which shows that the stop is not epenthetic), as well as a voiced labiodental affricate, [b̪͡v], as in [ʃileb̪͡vu] "chin". There is no voiceless labiodental fricative [f] in this dialect of Tsonga, only a voiceless bilabial fricative, as in [ɸu] "finished". (Among voiced fricatives, both [β] and [v] occur, however.)

German has a similar sound /p͡f/ in Pfeffer /ˈp͡fɛfər/ ('pepper') and Apfel /ˈap͡fəl/ ('apple'). Phonotactically, this sound does not occur after long vowels, diphthongs or /l/. It differs from a true labiodental affricate in that it starts out bilabial but then the lower lip retracts slightly for the frication.

The sound occurs occasionally in English, in compound words where one syllable ends with "p" and the next starts with "f", like in "helpful" or "stepfather".

Features

Features of the voiceless labiodental affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• There are two variants of the stop component:
  • bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips. The affricate with this stop component is called bilabial-labiodental.
  • labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
• The fricative component of this affricate is labiodental, articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
• 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 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
Bavarian		hupfa	[ˈhup͡fɑ]	'to jump'
German	Standard	Pfirsiche	[ˈp͡fɪɐ̯zɪçə]	'peaches'	Bilabial-labiodental. See Standard German phonology
	Swiss dialects	Soipfe	[ˈz̥oi̯p͡fə]	'soap'	Bilabial-labiodental. The example word is from the Zurich dialect.
Italian	Some central-south dialects	infatti	[iɱˈp̪͡fät̪̚t̪i]	'indeed'	Labiodental, allophone of /f/ after nasals. See Italian phonology
Luxembourgish		Kampf	[ˈkʰɑmp͡f]	'fight'	Occurs only in German loanwords. See Luxembourgish phonology
Tsonga	XiNkuna dialect	timpfuvu	[tiɱp̪͡fuβu]	'hippopotami'	Contrasts with aspirated form.

References

• Canepari, Luciano (1992), Il MªPi – Manuale di pronuncia italiana [Handbook of Italian Pronunciation] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli, ISBN 88-08-24624-8
• Fleischer, Jürg; Schmid, Stephan (2006), "Zurich German" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2), doi:10.1017/S0025100306002441
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
• Mangold, Max (2005) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.), Mannheim: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7
• Marti, Werner (1985), Berndeutsch-Grammatik, Bern: Francke, ISBN 3-7720-1587-5