A voiced labial–palatal (or labio-palatal) approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages, for example, French , read as [ɥitjɛm]. 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 , a rotated lowercase letter .

A 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, and with the non-syllabic diacritic are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound. Sometimes,See e.g. is written in place of , 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 a language is Spanish, in which a labialized palatal approximant (non-semivowel) appears allophonically with back vowels in words such as ayuda ('help'), while unrounded elsewhere, such as ayer ('yesterday'). Therefore, according to some sources, it is not correct to transcribe this sound with the symbol , which has a different kind of rounding, or with a modified , which according to the same sources cannot be rounded at all; the only suitable transcription is . See for more information.

There is also a labialized post-palatal or pre-velar approximantAlso may be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" and "front-velar". 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 (a retracted ), (centralized ), (advanced ), or (centralized ). These symbols may be used separately to distinguish compressed (exolabial) and protruded (endolabial) rounding, as in vs or vs . Other possible transcriptions include (a centralized and labialized ) and (a non-syllabic ). The para-IPA symbols (barred ) may also be used for the exolabial and endolabial variants of the post-palatal approximant respectively,L2/24-171: Miscellaneous historical and para-IPA modifier letters and are scheduled to be supported by Unicode in September 2026.Unicode Pipeline, 2025

Compressed palatal approximant A compressed palatal approximant is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , 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 (simultaneous and labial compression) or ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic may also be used with a labialized approximant letter (or ) as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

A compressed post-palatal or pre-velar approximant can be transcribed simply as (centralized ), and that is the convention used in this article. Other possible transcriptions include (centralized modified with labial compression), (centralized with the spread-lip diacritic), and the para-IPA (barred ).

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

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Abkhaz ауаҩы 'human' See Abkhaz phonology Breton Gwenedeg 'escapade' Realization of /w/ before front vowels. Dida Allophone of before high front vowels.EnglishBay Islands'will'Allophone of or that only occurs before /i/ or /ɪ/. See Bay Islands English#Phonology. French 'to harm' Merges with or in Belgian French. See French phonology Iaai vëk 'four' Contrasts with the voiceless .KhamGamale Kham'husband' Korean Gyeonggi / 'Take it easy' Only occurs before . See Korean phonology Kurdish 'back' See Kurdish phonologyMandarin / 'moon'See Mandarin phonology Norwegian Urban East 'dualism' Post-palatal; appears prevocalically after the compressed close vowels . May be transcribed with or simply . See Norwegian phonology Occitan 'night' See Occitan phonology Shipibo Allophone of before . Only lightly labialized.Shanghainese / yoq'bath'Allophone of before rounded vowels. Swedish Central Standard 'ugly' Non-syllabic element of the common diphthongal realization of (); can be a fricative instead. Palatal in the Central Standard variety, post-palatal in some other varieties. See Swedish phonology Upper Sorbian 'I know' Soft counterpart of . Xumi Lower 'fang' Allophone of when preceded by an (alveolo-)palatal initial and/or followed by one of the front vowels (in Upper Xumi also ). Upper 'to ask'

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 or (a palatal approximant modified by endolabialization).

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

A protruded post-palatal or pre-velar approximant can be transcribed simply as (centralized ). Other possible transcriptions include (centralized modified with endolabialization), (centralized with labialization), and the para-IPA (barred ).

Features Features of a 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.

Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Norwegian Urban East 'cyanide' Appears prevocalically after the protruded close vowels . See Norwegian phonology Spanish 'help' Approximant consonant; lenited allophone of before and between rounded vowels. May be a fricative in emphatic speech. See Spanish phonology

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