The pronunciation of is extremely variable, but its most common pronunciation (its canonical allophone) is the labiodental fricative, IPA (as found in English). Another allophone is the bilabial fricative, IPA , which is usually supposed to be the sole pre-European pronunciation, although linguists are not sure of the truth of this supposition. At least until the 1930s, the bilabial fricative was considered to be the correct pronunciation. The fact that English gets substituted by and not in borrowings (for example, English "February" becomes "Pēpuere" instead of *"Whēpuere") would strongly hint that the Māori did not perceive English to be the same sound as their .