Voiced labiodental fricative

"/v/" redirects here. For the video games board, see /v/ (imageboard).

Voiced labiodental fricative
v
IPA number	129
Audio sample
source  · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	v
Unicode (hex)	U+0076
X-SAMPA	v
Braille
Image

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:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is labiodental, which means it is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the median–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		европа [ romanization needed ]	[evˈropʼa]	'Europe'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		жъвэ / ẑvă	[ʐvɜ] ⓘ	'oar'
Afrikaans		wees	[vɪəs]	'to be'	See Afrikaans phonology
Albanian		valixhe	[vaˈlidʒɛ]	'case'
Arabic	Algerian [5]	كاڥي ‎[ romanization needed ]	[kavi]	'ataxy'	See Arabic phonology
	Hejazi	فيروس[ romanization needed ]	[vajˈruːs]	'virus'	Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as [f] by many speakers.
	Siirt [5]	ذهب [ romanization needed ]	[vaˈhab]	'gold'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern [6]	վեց / vecʼ	[vɛtsʰ] ⓘ	'six'
Assyrian		ܟܬܒ̣ܐ / ctava	[ctaːva]	'book'	Only in the Urmia dialects. [ ʋ ] is also predominantly used. Corresponds to [ w ] in the other varieties.
Bai	Dali	?	[ŋv˩˧]	'fish'
Bulgarian		вода / voda	[voda]	'water'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan	Alguerese [7]	vell	[ˈveʎ]	'old'	See Catalan phonology
	Balearic [8] [7]
	Southern Catalonia [9]
	Valencian [9] [7]
Chechen		вашa / vaşa	[vaʃa]	'brother'
Chinese	Wu	饭 / ⁶vae	[vɛ]	'cooked rice'
	Sichuanese	五 / wu³	[vu˥˧]	'five'	Corresponds to /w/ in standard Mandarin.
Czech		voda	[ˈvodä]	'water'	See Czech phonology
Chichewa [10]		[ example needed ]			Has both plain and labialized. [11]
Danish	Standard [12]	véd	[ve̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ]	'know(s)'	Most often an approximant [ ʋ ]. [2] See Danish phonology
Dutch	All dialects	wraak	[vraːk]	'revenge'	Allophone of /ʋ/ before /r/. See Dutch phonology
	Most dialects	vreemd	[vreːmt]	'strange'	Often devoiced to [ f ] by speakers from the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology
	Standard [13]
English	All dialects	valve	[væɫv] ⓘ	'valve'	See English phonology
	African American [14]	breathe	[bɹiːv]	'breathe'	Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting
	Cockney [15]		[bɹəi̯v]
Esperanto		vundo	[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 [ romanization needed ]	[ˈvitsʼɾo]	'narrow'
German		Wächter	[ˈvɛçtɐ]	'guard'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		βερνίκι / verníki	[ve̞rˈnici]	'varnish'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		גב [ romanization needed ]	[ɡav]	'back'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi [19]		व्रत [ romanization needed ]	[vrət̪]	'fast'	See Hindustani phonology
Hmong		𖬖𖬰𖬜 / vaj	[va˥˨]	'king', 'vang clan last name'
Hungarian		veszély	[vɛseːj]	'danger'	See Hungarian phonology
Irish		bhaile	[vaːlə]	'home'	See Irish phonology
Italian [20]		avare	[aˈvare]	'miserly' (f. pl.)	See Italian phonology
Judaeo-Spanish		mueve	[ˈmwɛvɛ]	'nine'
Kabardian		вагъуэ / vağue / ۋاغوە	[vaːʁʷa] ⓘ	'star'	Corresponds to [ʒʷ] in Adyghe
Macedonian		вода / voda	[vɔda]	'water'	See Macedonian phonology
Malayalam		വിയർപ്പ് / viyarpp`	[vijɐɾpɨ̆]	'sweat'	Usually pronounced as /ʋ/ by most speakers. See Malayalam phonology
Maltese		iva	[iva]	'yes'
Norwegian	Urban East [4]	venn	[ve̞nː]	'friend'	Allophone of /ʋ/ before a pause and in emphatic speech. [4] See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Auvergnat	vol	[vɔl]	'flight'	See Occitan phonology
	Limousin
	Provençal
Persian	Western	ورزش [ romanization needed ]	[værzeʃ]	'sport'	See Persian phonology
Polish [21]		wór	[vur] ⓘ	'bag'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese [22]		vila	[ˈvilɐ]	'town', 'village'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		val	[väl]	'wave'	See Romanian phonology
Russian [23] [24]		волосы / volosy	[ˈvʷo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞]	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. May be a lenited fricative [v̞] or an approximant [ ʋ ] instead. [24] See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		a-bhos	[əˈvɔs̪]	'over here'	Loosely articulated, can resemble [ β ]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		voda	[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]	Standard	filozof gre	[filoˈz̪ôːvˈɡɾěː]	'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]	All dialects	afgano	[ävˈɣ̞äno̞]	'Afghan'	Allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants. See Spanish phonology
	Chilean [29]	nue'vo	[ˈnwevo̞]	'new'	Allophone of /b/; pronounced as [ β ] in other dialects.
Swedish		vägg	[ˈvɛɡː]	'wall'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish [30]		vade	[väːˈd̪ɛ]	'due date'	The main allophone of /v/; realized as bilabial [β ~ β̞] in certain contexts. [30] See Turkish phonology
Tamil		வார்த்தை [ romanization needed ]	[vaːɾt̪ɐi̯]	'word'	See Tamil phonology
Tyap		vak	[vag]	'road'
Umbundu [31]		[ example needed ]			Has both plain and nasalized. [31]
Urdu		ورزش [ romanization needed ]	[vəɾzɪʃ]	'exercise'	See Hindustani phonology
Vietnamese [32]		và	[vaː˨˩]	'and'	In southern dialects, is in free variation with [ j ]. See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		weevje	[ˈʋeɪ̯vjə]	'to weave'	Never occurs in word-initial positions. See West Frisian phonology
Welsh		fi	[vi]	'I'	See Welsh phonology
Yi		ꃶ / vu	[vu˧]	'intestines'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. "UPSID Segment Frequency" . Retrieved 13 February 2023.
2. Basbøll (2005 :66)
3. Árnason (2011 :115)
4. Kristoffersen (2000 :74)
5. Watson (2002 :15)
6. Dum-Tragut (2009 :18)
7. "La /v/ labiodental" (PDF). IEC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
8. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992 :53)
9. Wheeler (2005 :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. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015 :223)
25. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010 :374)
26. 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. "Feature descriptions". Voices of the Hispanic World. Ohio State University. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
30. Göksel & Kerslake (2005 :6))
31. "Nasalization in Umbundu" (PDF). scispace.com. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
32. Thompson (1959 :458–461)

References

• Árnason, Kristján (2011). The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0199229314.
• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN   0-203-97876-5
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID   249411809
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID   249414876
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L. (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID   249404451
• Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN   978-0415114943
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID   243772965
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (3): 373–378, doi: 10.1017/S0025100310000162
• Herrity, Peter (2000), Slovene: A Comprehensive Grammar, London: Routledge, ISBN   0415231485
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi: 10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN   978-0-19-823765-5
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN   0-521-65236-7
• McWhorter, John H. (2001), Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English, Basic Books, ISBN   978-0-7382-0446-8
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID   13470826
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi: 10.1017/S0025100304001628
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi: 10.1017/S0025100306002659
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR   411232
• Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
• Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278),Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759. ISBN   0-52129719-2  , 0-52128540-2  .
• Wheeler, Max W. (2005), The Phonology Of Catalan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN   0-19-925814-7
• Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi: 10.1017/S0025100314000395

External links

• List of languages with [v] on PHOIBLE