A voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is something between an English /w/ and /v/, pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter V. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a letter v with a leftward hook protruding from the upper right of the letter. In some sources, this letter indicates a bilabial approximant, though this is more accurately transcribed with an advanced diacritic, .
A labiodental approximant is the typical realization of in the Indian South African variety of English. As the voiceless is also realized as an approximant (), it is also an example of a language contrasting voiceless and voiced labiodental approximants.
Features of a voiced labiodental approximant: