Voiced labiodental fricative

Voiced labiodental fricative
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. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "v" sound in "vase". 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. 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, Faroese, Icelandic or Norwegian 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 speech sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		европа(evropa)	[evˈropʼa]	'Europe'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		жъвэ / ẑvă	[ʐvɜ]	'oar'
Afrikaans		wees	[vɪəs]	'to be'	See Afrikaans phonology
Albanian		valixhe	[vaˈlidʒɛ]	'case'
Arabic	Algerian	كاڥي(kāvī)	[kavi]	'ataxy'	See Arabic phonology
	Hejazi	فيروس(vayrūs	[vajˈruːs]	'virus'	Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as [f] by many speakers.
	Siirt	ذهب(vahab)	[vaˈhab]	'gold'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	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	Algherese	vell	[ˈveʎ]	'old'	See Catalan phonology
	Balearic
	Southern Catalonia
	Valencian
Chechen		вашa / vaşa	[vaʃa]	'brother'
Chinese	Wu	饭 / ⁶vae	[vɛ]	'cooked rice'
Chinese	Sichuanese	五 / wu³	[vu˥˧]	'five'	Corresponds to /w/ in standard Mandarin.
Czech		voda	[ˈvoda]	'water'	See Czech phonology
Chichewa		^{[example needed]}			Has both plain and labialized.
Danish	Standard	véd	[ve̝ːˀð̠˕ˠ]	'know(s)'	Most often an approximant [ʋ]. 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	vreemd	[vreːmt]	'strange'
English	All dialects	valve	[væɫv]^ⓘ	'valve'	See English phonology
	African American	breathe	[bɹiːv]	'breathe'	Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting
	Cockney	breathe	[bɹəi̯v]	'breathe'	Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting
Esperanto		vundo	[ˈvundo]	'wound'	See Esperanto phonology
Ewe		evlo	[évló]	'he is evil'
Faroese		veður	[ˈveːʋuɹ]	'speech'	Word-initial allophone of /v/, in free variation with an approximant [ʋ]. See Faroese phonology
French		valve	[valv]	'valve'	See French phonology
Georgian		ვიწრო(vitsʼro)	[ˈvitsʼɾo]	'narrow'
German		Wächter	[ˈvɛçtɐ]	'guard'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		βερνίκι / verníki	[ve̞rˈnici]	'varnish'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		גב/gav	[ɡäv]	'back'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		व्रत(vrat)	[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		avare	[aˈvare]	'miserly' (f. pl.)	See Italian phonology
Judaeo-Spanish		mueve	[ˈmwɛvɛ]	'nine'
Kabardian		вагъуэ / vağue / ۋاغوە	[vaːʁʷa]^ⓘ	'star'	Corresponds to [ʒʷ] in Adyghe
Kashmiri		وَرزِش	[vaɾzɪʃ]	'exercise'	See Kashmiri phonology
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	venn	[ve̞nː]	'friend'	Allophone of /ʋ/ before a pause and in emphatic speech. See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Auvergnat	vol	[vɔl]	'flight'	See Occitan phonology
	Limousin
	Provençal
Persian	Western	ورزش varzeš	[væɹ'z̪eʃ]	'sport'	See Persian phonology
Polish		wór	[vur]^ⓘ	'bag'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		vila	[ˈvilɐ]	'town', 'village'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		val	[väl]	'wave'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		волосы / volosy	[ˈvʷo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞]	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. May be a lenited fricative [v̞] or an approximant [ʋ] instead. 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		vzrast	[vzräst]	'height'	Appears only in syllable onset before voiced obstruents; the usual realization of /v/ is an approximant [ʋ]. See Slovak phonology
Slovene	Standard	filozof gre	[filoˈz̪ôːv ˈɡɾěː]	'philosopher goes'	Allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants. See Slovene phonology
Slovene	Some dialects	voda	[ˈvɔ̀ːd̪á]	'water'	Instead of /ʋ/. See Slovene phonology
Spanish	All dialects	afgano	[ävˈɣ̞äno̞]	'Afghan'	Allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants. See Spanish phonology
Spanish	Chilean	nuevo	[ˈnwevo̞]	'new'	Allophone of /b/; pronounced as [β] in other dialects.
Swedish		vägg	[ˈvɛɡː]	'wall'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		vade	[väːˈd̪ɛ]	'due date'	The main allophone of /v/; realized as bilabial [β ~ β̞] in certain contexts. See Turkish phonology
Tamil		வார்த்தை(vārttai)	[vaːɾt̪ɐi̯]	'word'	See Tamil phonology
Tyap		vak	[vag]	'road'
Umbundu		^{[example needed]}			Has both plain and nasalized.
Urdu		ورزش(varziš)	[vəɾzɪʃ]	'exercise'	See Hindustani phonology
Vietnamese		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'

Notes

↑ "UPSID Segment Frequency". Retrieved 13 February 2023.
1 2 Basbøll (2005:66)
1 2 3 Árnason (2011:115)
1 2 3 Kristoffersen (2000:74)
1 2 Watson (2002:15)
↑ Dum-Tragut (2009:18)
1 2 3 "La /v/ labiodental" (PDF). IEC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
↑ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
1 2 Wheeler (2005:13)
↑ "PBase". pbase.phon.chass.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
↑ "PBase". pbase.phon.chass.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
↑ Basbøll (2005:62)
↑ Gussenhoven (1992:45)
↑ McWhorter (2001), pp. 148.
↑ Wells (1982), p. 328.
↑ Ladefoged (2005:156)
↑ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
↑ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
↑ 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
↑ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
↑ Jassem (2003:103)
↑ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
↑ Padgett (2003:42)
1 2 Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)
1 2 Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
1 2 Herrity (2000:16)
↑ "Tema 2 Fonética y Fonología. La descripción de los sonidos" (PDF), uclm.es (in Spanish), archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-07
↑ "Consonantes oclusivas", plaza.ufl.edu, retrieved 2024-07-20
↑ "Feature descriptions". Voices of the Hispanic World. Ohio State University. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
1 2 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6))
1 2 "Nasalization in Umbundu" (PDF). scispace.com. Retrieved 2025-10-31.
↑ 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

[1] "UPSID Segment Frequency". Retrieved 13 February 2023.

[basb66-2] 1 2 Basbøll (2005:66)

[arn115-3] 1 2 3 Árnason (2011:115)

[krist74-4] 1 2 3 Kristoffersen (2000:74)

[wats15-5] 1 2 Watson (2002:15)

[6] Dum-Tragut (2009:18)

[IEC-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)

[wheel13-9] 1 2 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)

[FOOTNOTEMcWhorter2001148-14] McWhorter (2001), pp. 148.

[FOOTNOTEWells1982328-15] Wells (1982), p. 328.

[16] Ladefoged (2005:156)

[17] Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)

[18] Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)

[ref25lojir-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)

[yb-24] 1 2 Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:223)

[hh374-25] 1 2 Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)

[her16-26] 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] "Feature descriptions". Voices of the Hispanic World. Ohio State University. Retrieved 3 October 2022.

[gk6-30] 1 2 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6))

[Umbundu-31] 1 2 "Nasalization in Umbundu" (PDF). scispace.com. Retrieved 2025-10-31.

[32] Thompson (1959:458–461)