Voiced labiodental fricative

IPA – number	129
IPA – text	v
IPA – image
Entity	v
X-SAMPA	v
Kirshenbaum	v
Sound sample (help·info)

The 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, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is v.

Although this is a familiar sound to most European listeners, it is cross-linguistically a fairly uncommon sound, being only a quarter as frequent as [w]. The presence of [v] and absence of [w], along with the presence of otherwise unknown front rounded vowels [y, ø, œ], 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 which lack this sound like Mandarin tend to pronounce [v] as [p], Japanese as [b], and Cantonese as [w], thus failing to distinguish the English words "very" and "berry".

Features

Features of the 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 lips and the upper teeth.
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		европа	[evˈropʼa]	'Europe'	See Abkhaz phonology
Albanian		valixhe	[validʒɛ]	'case'
Arabic	Siirt[1]	ذهب	[vaˈhab]	'gold'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian		վեց	[vɛtsʰ]	'six'
Bai	Dali	?	[ŋv˩˧]	'fish'
Catalan	Balearic[2]	blava	[ˈblavə]	'blue' (f.)	See Catalan phonology
	Valencian[3]
	southern Catalonia[3]
Chechen		вашa/vaṣa	[vaʃa]	'brother'
Czech		voda	[voda]	'water'	See Czech phonology
Dutch[4]		vreemd	[vremt]	'strange'	See Dutch phonology
English		valve	[væɫv]	'valve'	See English phonology
Ewe[5]		?	[évlɔ]	'he is evil'
Faroese		røða	[ˈɹøːva]	'speech'
French[6]		valve	[valv]	'valve'	See French phonology
Georgian[7]		ვიწრო	[ˈvitsʼɾo]	'narrow'
German		Wächter	[ˈvɛçtɐ]	'guard'	See German phonology
Greek		βερνίκι	[ve̞r.ˈni.ci]	'varnish'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		veszély	[vɛseːj]	'danger'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[8]		avare	[aˈvare]	'miserly' (f.pl.)	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		зэвы	[zævɛ]	'narrow'
Ladino		mueve	[ˈmwɛvɛ]	'nine'
Maltese		iva	[iva]	'yes'
Norwegian		vann	[vɑn]	'water'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish[9]		wór	[vur] (help·info)	'bag'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[10]		vinho	[ˈviɲu]	'wine'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		val	[val]	'wave'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[11]		волосы	[ˈvoləsɨ]	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Slovak		voda	[voda]	'water'
Spanish[12]		afgano	[avˈɣano̞]	'Afghan'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		vägg	[ˈvɛɡ]	'wall'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		ev	[ev]	'house'	See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese		vê	[ve]	'to roll'	Variety: [je]. See Vietnamese phonology

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76 
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45-47 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.). Blackwell. 
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39-87 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264 
• Watson, Janet (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press. 
• Wheeler, Max W (2005). The Phonology Of Catalan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199258147.