(IPA) A sound defined alternatingly as a voicelesslabial-velarfricative in IPA charts, which by implication would be [xʷ], and in text as a voiceless [w], which by implication would be a voicelesslabial-velarapproximant, [w̥]. The contradiction is only resolved if a voiceless approximant is a fricative, but phoneticians generally recognize that these are different classes of sound.
(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 verbally 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 modern accents is [w̥] or [hʷ] rather than [xʷ]. It continues to be identified as [w̥] by many linguists.[1]⟨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.
