Labialized velar consonant
# Labialized velar consonant

A labialized velar or labiovelar is a velar consonant that is labialized, with a /w/-like secondary articulation. Common 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]. Such sounds occur across Africa and the Americas, in the Caucasus, etc.

## 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 | Example | Example | Example |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| IPA | Description | Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning |
| | Voiceless labialized velar approximant | English | which | $[ʍɪtʃ]^1$ | 'which' |
| | Labio-velar approximant | English | 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 variously as /kw/ or /k/. See etymology of English interrogative words for details. The English phonemic spelling kw for qu (as in kwik) echoes its origin.

