Voiced labiodental fricative

❧

Wikipedia

Voiced labiodental fricative
v
IPA number129
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)v
Unicode (hex)U+0076
X-SAMPAv
Braille⠧ (braille pattern dots-1236)

A voiced labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨v⟩.

The sound is similar to voiced alveolar fricative /z/ in that it is familiar to most European speakers[citation needed] but is a fairly uncommon sound cross-linguistically, occurring in approximately 21.1% of languages.[1] Moreover, most languages that have /z/ also have /v/ and similarly to /z/, the overwhelming majority of languages with [v] are languages of Europe, Africa, or Western Asia, although the similar labiodental approximant /ʋ/ is also common in India. The presence of [v] and absence of [w], is a very distinctive areal feature of European languages and those of adjacent areas of Siberia and Central Asia.[citation needed] Speakers of East Asian languages that lack this sound may pronounce it as [b] (Korean and Japanese), or [f]/[w] (Cantonese and Mandarin), and thus be unable to distinguish between a number of English minimal pairs.[citation needed]

In certain languages, such as Danish,[2] Faroese,[3] Icelandic or Norwegian[4] the voiced labiodental fricative is in a free variation with the labiodental approximant.

Features

Features of a voiced labiodental fricative:

Occurrence

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Abkhazевропа[evˈropʼa]'Europe'See Abkhaz phonology
Adygheжъвэ / ẑvă[ʐvɜ]ⓘ'oar'
Afrikaanswees[vɪəs]'to be'See Afrikaans phonology
Albanianvalixhe[vaˈlidʒɛ]'case'
Arabic Algerian[5]كاڥي‎[kavi]'ataxy'See Arabic phonology
Hejazi فيروس [vajˈruːs] 'virus' Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as [f] by many speakers.
Siirt[5]ذهب[vaˈhab]'gold'See Arabic phonology
ArmenianEastern[6]վեց[vɛtsʰ]ⓘ'six'
Assyrianܟܬܒ̣ܐ ctava[ctaːva]'book'Only in the Urmia dialects. [ʋ] is also predominantly used. Corresponds to [w] in the other varieties.
BaiDali?[ŋv˩˧]'fish'
Bulgarianвода[voda]'water'See Bulgarian phonology
CatalanAlguerese[7]vell[ˈveʎ]'old'See Catalan phonology
Balearic[8][7]
Southern Catalonia[9]
Valencian[9][7]
Chechenвашa / vaşa[vaʃa]'brother'
ChineseWu饭[vɛ]'cooked rice'
Sichuanese五[vu˥˧]'five'Corresponds to /w/ in standard Mandarin.
Czechvoda[ˈvodä]'water'See Czech phonology
Chichewa[10][example needed]Has both plain and labialized.[11]
DanishStandard[12]véd[ve̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ]'know(s)'Most often an approximant [ʋ].[2] See Danish phonology
DutchAll dialectswraak[vraːk]'revenge'Allophone of /ʋ/ before /r/. See Dutch phonology
Most dialectsvreemd[vreːmt]'strange'Often devoiced to [f] by speakers from the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology
Standard[13]
EnglishAll dialectsvalve[væɫv]ⓘ'valve'See English phonology
African American[14]breathe[bɹiːv]'breathe'Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting
Cockney[15][bɹəi̯v]
Esperantovundo [ˈvundo]'wound'See Esperanto phonology
Ewe[16]evlo[évló]'he is evil'
Faroese[3]veður[ˈveːʋuɹ]'speech'Word-initial allophone of /v/, in free variation with an approximant [ʋ].[3] See Faroese phonology
French[17]valve[valv]'valve'See French phonology
Georgian[18]ვიწრო[ˈvitsʼɾo]'narrow'
GermanWächter[ˈvɛçtɐ]'guard'See Standard German phonology
Greekβερνίκι verníki[ve̞rˈnici]'varnish'See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrewגב[ɡav]'back'See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi[19]व्रत[vrət̪]'fast'See Hindustani phonology
Hmong𖬖𖬰𖬜 / vaj[va˥˨]'king', 'vang clan last name'
Hungarianveszély[vɛseːj]'danger'See Hungarian phonology
Irishbhaile[vaːlə]'home'See Irish phonology
Italian[20]avare[aˈvare]'miserly' (f. pl.)See Italian phonology
Judaeo-Spanishmueve[ˈmwɛvɛ]'nine'
Kabardianвагъуэ / vağue / ۋاغوە[vaːʁʷa]ⓘ'star'Corresponds to [ʒʷ] in Adyghe
Macedonianвода[vɔda]'water'See Macedonian phonology
Malayalamവിയർപ്പ്[vijɐɾpɨ̆]'sweat'
Malteseiva[iva]'yes'
NorwegianUrban East[4]venn[ve̞nː]'friend'Allophone of /ʋ/ before a pause and in emphatic speech.[4] See Norwegian phonology
OccitanAuvergnatvol[vɔl]'flight'See Occitan phonology
Limousin
Provençal
PersianWesternورزش[værzeʃ]'sport'See Persian phonology
Polish[21]wór[vur]ⓘ'bag'See Polish phonology
Portuguese[22]vila[ˈvilɐ]'town'See Portuguese phonology
Romanianval[väl]'wave'See Romanian phonology
Russian[23][24]волосы[ˈvʷo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞]'hair'Contrasts with palatalized form. May be a lenited fricative [v̞] or an approximant [ʋ] instead.[24] See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelica-bhos[əˈvɔs̪]'over here'Loosely articulated, can resemble [β]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatianvoda[vɔ'da]'water'See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak[25]vzrast[vzräst]'height'Appears only in syllable onset before voiced obstruents; the usual realization of /v/ is an approximant [ʋ].[25] See Slovak phonology
Slovene[26] Standardfilozof gre[filoˈz̪ôːv ˈɡɾěː]'philosopher goes'Allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants.[26] See Slovene phonology
Some dialects voda [ˈvɔ̀ːd̪á] 'water' Instead of /ʋ/. See Slovene phonology
Spanish[27][28]afgano[ävˈɣ̞äno̞]'Afghan'Allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants. See Spanish phonology
Swedishvägg[ˈvɛɡː]'wall'See Swedish phonology
Turkish[29]vade[väːˈd̪ɛ]'due date'The main allophone of /v/; realized as bilabial [β ~ β̞] in certain contexts.[29] See Turkish phonology
Tamilவார்த்தை[vaːɾt̪ɐi̯]'word'See Tamil phonology
Tyapvak[vag]'road'
Umbundu[30][example needed]Has both plain and nasalized.[30]
Urdu ورزش [vəɾzɪʃ] ‘exercise’ See Hindustani phonology
Vietnamese[31]và[vaː˨˩]'and'In southern dialects, is in free variation with [j]. See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisianweevje[ˈʋeɪ̯vjə]'to weave'Never occurs in word-initial positions. See West Frisian phonology
Welshfi[vi]'I'See Welsh phonology
Yiꃶ/vu[vu˧]'intestines'

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "UPSID Segment Frequency". Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 Basbøll (2005:66)
  3. 1 2 3 Árnason (2011:115)
  4. 1 2 3 Kristoffersen (2000:74)
  5. 1 2 Watson (2002:15)
  6. ↑ Dum-Tragut (2009:18)
  7. 1 2 3 "La /v/ labiodental" (PDF). IEC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  8. ↑ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
  9. 1 2 Wheeler (2002:13)
  10. ↑ "PBase". pbase.phon.chass.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
  11. ↑ "PBase". pbase.phon.chass.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
  12. ↑ Basbøll (2005:62)
  13. ↑ Gussenhoven (1992:45)
  14. ↑ McWhorter (2001), pp. 148.
  15. ↑ Wells (1982), p. 328.
  16. ↑ Ladefoged (2005:156)
  17. ↑ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
  18. ↑ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
  19. ↑ Pierrehumbert, Janet; Nair, Rami (1996), Laks, Bernard (ed.), Implications of Hindi Prosodic Structure (Current Trends in Phonology: Models and Methods) (PDF), European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1-901471-02-1, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-13, retrieved 2010-10-19
  20. ↑ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
  21. ↑ Jassem (2003:103)
  22. ↑ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
  23. ↑ Padgett (2003:42)
  24. 1 2 Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)
  25. 1 2 Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
  26. 1 2 Herrity (2000:16)
  27. ↑ "Tema 2 Fonética y Fonología. La descripción de los sonidos" (PDF), uclm.es (in Spanish), archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-07
  28. ↑ "Consonantes oclusivas", plaza.ufl.edu, retrieved 2024-07-20
  29. 1 2 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6))
  30. 1 2 "Nasalization in Umbundu" (PDF). scispace.com. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
  31. ↑ Thompson (1959:458–461)

References