ʍ

An inverted letter w.

• IPA

  (file)

ʍ

1. (IPA, officially prior to 1979) a voiceless labialized velar approximant, IPA^(key): [w̥].
2. (IPA, officially since 1979) a voiceless labialized velar fricative, IPA^(key): [xʷ].
3. (superscript ⟨ꭩ⟩, IPA) voiceless labialization (such as word-final [xꭩ] in German auch), aspirated labialization (such as ⟨kꭩ⟩ for [kʷʰ]), [ʍ]-fricated release of a plosive, [ʍ]-coloring, or a weak, fleeting or epenthetic [ʍ].

This symbol is redundant in the IPA. It is officially defined as a labial-velar fricative, which if taken literally would mean [ɸ͡x], but which IPA president Peter Ladefoged thought would actually need to be [xʷ]. Historically its primary use has been for the English wh-sound, which in most accents is [w̥] or [hʷ] rather than [xʷ]. It continues to be identified as ⟨w̥⟩ by many linguists. ⟨ʍ⟩ is not frequently used for languages other than English and Scots, with a less ambiguous transcription such as ⟨w̥⟩, ⟨hʷ⟩ or ⟨xʷ⟩ generally being preferred.

• w
• ɧ (a letter defined specifically for Swedish)