Voiced labial–palatal approximant

The voiced labial–palatal (or labio-palatal) approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It has two constrictions in the vocal tract: with the tongue on the palate, and rounded at the lips. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɥ⟩, a rotated lowercase letter $⟨h⟩$, or occasionally ⟨jʷ⟩, which indicates with a different kind of rounding.

The labial–palatal approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close front rounded vowel. They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, ⟨ɥ⟩ and ⟨y̑⟩ with the non-syllabic diacritic are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound. Sometimes, ⟨y̆⟩ is written in place of ⟨y̑⟩, even though the former symbol denotes an extra-short in the official IPA.

Some languages, though, have a palatal approximant that is unspecified for rounding, and therefore cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either or its unrounded counterpart. An example of such language is Spanish, in which the labialized palatal approximant (not a semivowel) appears allophonically with rounded vowels in words such as ayuda 'help'. According to some sources, it is not correct to transcribe this with the symbol ⟨ɥ⟩, which has a different kind of rounding, or with ⟨jʷ⟩, which implies spread lips; the only suitable transcription is ⟨ʝ̞ʷ⟩. See palatal approximant for more information.

There is also the labialized postpalatal approximant in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical labialized palatal approximant, though not as back as the prototypical labialized velar approximant. It can be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close central rounded vowel. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ɥ̄⟩ or ⟨ɥ˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ɥ⟩), ⟨ɥ̈⟩ (centralized ⟨ɥ⟩), ⟨w̟⟩ (advanced ⟨w⟩) or ⟨ẅ⟩ (centralized ⟨w⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are,  ,   and  , respectively. Other possible transcriptions include a centralized and labialized ⟨j⟩ (⟨j̈ʷ⟩ in the IPA,  in X-SAMPA) and a non-syllabic ⟨ʉ⟩ (⟨ʉ̯⟩ in the IPA,   in X-SAMPA).

Especially in broad transcription, the labialized postpalatal approximant may be transcribed as a palatalized and labialized velar approximant (⟨wʲ⟩ in the IPA,  or   in X-SAMPA).

Compressed palatal approximant
The compressed palatal approximant is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨ɥ⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter as ⟨j͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous  and labial compression) or ⟨jᵝ⟩ ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨͍⟩ may also be used with a labialized approximant letter ⟨ɥ͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

The compressed post-palatal approximant can be transcribed simply as ⟨ɥ̈⟩ (centralized ), and that is the convention used in this article. Other possible transcriptions include ⟨j̈ᵝ⟩ (centralized modified with labial compression) and ⟨ɥ͍̈⟩ (centralized  with the spread-lip diacritic).

Features
Features of the compressed palatal approximant:


 * Its place of articulation is palatal and in addition it is endo-labialized, which is accomplished by raising the body of the tongue toward the palate while approximating the lips.

Occurrence
Because the labialized palatal approximant is assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some examples in the table below may actually have protrusion.

Protruded palatal approximant
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨̫⟩, will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for the protruded palatal approximant. Another possible transcription is ⟨ɥʷ⟩ or ⟨jʷ⟩ (a palatal approximant modified by endolabialization).

Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed palatal approximant and the non-labialized palatal approximant.

Features
Features of the protruded palatal approximant:


 * Its place of articulation is labial–palatal, which is accomplished by raising the body of the tongue toward the palate while approximating the lips.