Voiced labiodental fricative

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 Template:Angbr IPA.

The sound is similar to voiced alveolar fricative /z/ in that it is familiar to most European speakersTemplate:Citation needed but is a fairly uncommon sound cross-linguistically, occurring in approximately 21.1% of languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 Template:IPA and absence of Template:IPA, is a very distinctive areal feature of European languages and those of adjacent areas of Siberia and Central Asia.Template:Citation needed Speakers of East Asian languages that lack this sound may pronounce it as Template:IPA (Korean and Japanese), or Template:IPA/Template:IPA (Cantonese and Mandarin), and thus be unable to distinguish between a number of English minimal pairs.Template:Citation needed

In certain languages, such as Danish,<ref name="basb66">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Faroese,<ref name="arn115">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Icelandic or Norwegian<ref name="krist74">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> the voiced labiodental fricative is in a free variation with the labiodental approximant.

Features

Features of a voiced labiodental fricative:

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Europe'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'oar'
Afrikaans		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to be'	See Afrikaans phonology
Albanian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'case'
Arabic	Algerian<ref name="auto" />	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:IPA	'ataxy'	See Arabic phonology
	Hejazi	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'virus'	Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as Template:IPA by many speakers.
	Siirt<ref name="auto">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'gold'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'six'
Assyrian		ܟܬܒ̣ܐ Template:Lang	Template:IPA]	'book'	Only in the Urmia dialects. Template:IPAblink is also predominantly used. Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in the other varieties.
Bai	Dali	?	Template:IPA	'fish'
Bulgarian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'water'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan	Alguerese<ref name=":0" />	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'old'	See Catalan phonology
	Balearic<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Wheeler|2002|p=13"/>
	Valencian<ref name="Harvcoltxt|Wheeler|2002|p=13">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref name=":0" />
Chechen		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'brother'
Chinese	Wu	饭	Template:IPA	'cooked rice'
	Sichuanese	五	Template:IPA	'five'	Corresponds to Template:IPA in standard Mandarin.
Czech		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'water'	See Czech phonology
Chichewa<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Example needed			Has both plain and labialized.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Danish	Standard<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'know(s)'	Most often an approximant Template:IPAblink.<ref name="basb66"/> See Danish phonology
Dutch	All dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'revenge'	Allophone of Template:IPA before Template:IPA. See Dutch phonology
	Most dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'strange'	Often devoiced to Template:IPAblink by speakers from the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology
	Standard<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
English	All dialects	valve	Template:Audio-IPA	'valve'	See English phonology
	African AmericanTemplate:Sfnp	breathe	Template:IPA	'breathe'	Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting
	CockneyTemplate:Sfnp		Template:IPA
Esperanto		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'wound'	See Esperanto phonology
Ewe<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'he is evil'
Faroese<ref name="arn115"/>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'speech'	Word-initial allophone of Template:IPA, in free variation with an approximant Template:IPAblink.<ref name="arn115"/> See Faroese phonology
French<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'valve'	See French phonology
Georgian<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'narrow'
German		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'guard'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'varnish'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'back'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi<ref name="ref25lojir">Template:Citation</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'fast'	See Hindustani phonology
Hmong		Template:Script / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'king', 'vang clan last name'
Hungarian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'danger'	See Hungarian phonology
Irish		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'home'	See Irish phonology
Italian<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'miserly' (f. pl.)	See Italian phonology
Judaeo-Spanish		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'nine'
Kabardian		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'star'	Corresponds to Template:IPA in Adyghe
Macedonian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'water'	See Macedonian phonology
Malayalam		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'sweat'
Maltese		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'yes'
Norwegian	Urban East<ref name="krist74"/>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'friend'	Allophone of Template:IPA before a pause and in emphatic speech.<ref name="krist74"/> See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Auvergnat	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'flight'	See Occitan phonology
	Limousin
	Provençal
Persian	Western	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'sport'	See Persian phonology
Polish<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'bag'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'town'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'wave'	See Romanian phonology
Russian<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref name="yb">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. May be a lenited fricative Template:IPA or an approximant Template:IPAblink instead.<ref name="yb"/> See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'over here'	Loosely articulated, can resemble Template:IPAblink. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'water'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak<ref name="hh374">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'height'	Appears only in syllable onset before voiced obstruents; the usual realization of Template:IPA is an approximant Template:IPAblink.<ref name="hh374"/> See Slovak phonology
Slovene<ref name="her16">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Standard	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'philosopher goes'	Allophone of Template:IPA before voiced consonants.<ref name="her16"/> See Slovene phonology
	Some dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'water'	Instead of Template:IPA. See Slovene phonology
Spanish<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Afghan'	Allophone of Template:IPA before voiced consonants. See Spanish phonology
Swedish		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'wall'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish<ref name="gk6">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'due date'	The main allophone of Template:IPA; realized as bilabial Template:IPA in certain contexts.<ref name="gk6"/> See Turkish phonology
Tamil		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'word'	See Tamil phonology
Tyap		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'road'
Umbundu<ref name="Umbundu">Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Example needed			Has both plain and nasalized.<ref name="Umbundu" />
Urdu		ورزش	[vəɾzɪʃ]	‘exercise’	See Hindustani phonology
Vietnamese<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'and'	In southern dialects, is in free variation with Template:IPA. See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to weave'	Never occurs in word-initial positions. See West Frisian phonology
Welsh		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'I'	See Welsh phonology
Yi		Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'intestines'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

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