# Voiced labiodental fricative

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.
The sound is similar to voiced alveolar fricative /z/ in that it is familiar to most European speakers 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. 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.
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 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 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
* Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
* Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

## Occurrence

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Abkhaz | Abkhaz | европа | [evˈropʼa] | 'Europe' | See Abkhaz phonology |
| Afrikaans | Afrikaans | wees | [vɪəs] | 'to be' | See Afrikaans phonology |
| Albanian | Albanian | valixhe | [vaˈlidʒɛ] | 'case' | |
| Arabic | Algerian | كاڥي‎ | [kavi] | 'ataxy' | See Arabic phonology |
| Arabic | Hejazi | فيروس | [vajˈruːs] | 'virus' | Only used in loanwords, transcribed and pronounced as [f] by many speakers. |
| Arabic | Siirt | ذهب | [vaˈhab] | 'gold' | See Arabic phonology |
| Armenian | Eastern | վեց | | 'six' | |
| Assyrian | 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 | Bulgarian | вода | [voda] | 'water' | See Bulgarian phonology |
| Catalan | Alguerese | vell | [ˈveʎ] | 'old' | See Catalan phonology |
| Catalan | Balearic | vell | [ˈveʎ] | 'old' | See Catalan phonology |
| Catalan | Southern Catalonia | vell | [ˈveʎ] | 'old' | See Catalan phonology |
| Catalan | Valencian | vell | [ˈveʎ] | 'old' | See Catalan phonology |
| Chechen | Chechen | вашa / vaşa | [vaʃa] | 'brother' | |
| Chinese | Wu | 饭 | [vɛ] | 'cooked rice' | |
| Chinese | Sichuanese | 五 | [vu˥˧] | 'five' | Corresponds to /w/ in standard Mandarin. |
| Czech | Czech | voda | [ˈvodä] | 'water' | See Czech phonology |
| 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 |
| Dutch | Most dialects | vreemd | [vreːmt] | 'strange' | Often devoiced to [f] by speakers from the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | vreemd | [vreːmt] | 'strange' | Often devoiced to [f] by speakers from the Netherlands. See Dutch phonology |
| English | All dialects | valve | | 'valve' | See English phonology |
| English | African American | breathe | [bɹiːv] | 'breathe' | Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting |
| English | Cockney | breathe | [bɹəi̯v] | 'breathe' | Does not occur word-initially. See th-fronting |
| Esperanto | Esperanto | vundo | [ˈvundo] | 'wound' | See Esperanto phonology |
| Ewe | Ewe | evlo | [évló] | 'he is evil' | |
| Faroese | Faroese | veður | [ˈveːʋuɹ] | 'speech' | Word-initial allophone of /v/, in free variation with an approximant [ʋ]. See Faroese phonology |
| French | French | valve | [valv] | 'valve' | See French phonology |
| Georgian | Georgian | ვიწრო | [ˈvitsʼɾo] | 'narrow' | |
| German | German | Wächter | [ˈvɛçtɐ] | 'guard' | See Standard German phonology |
| Greek | Greek | βερνίκι verníki | [ve̞rˈnici] | 'varnish' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hebrew | Hebrew | גב | [ɡav] | 'back' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hindi | Hindi | व्रत | [vrət̪] | 'fast' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | veszély | [vɛseːj] | 'danger' | See Hungarian phonology |
| Irish | Irish | bhaile | [vaːlə] | 'home' | See Irish phonology |
| Italian | Italian | avare | [aˈvare] | 'miserly' (f. pl.) | See Italian phonology |
| Judaeo-Spanish | Judaeo-Spanish | mueve | [ˈmwɛvɛ] | 'nine' | |
| Kabardian | Kabardian | вагъуэ / vağue / ۋاغوە | | 'star' | Corresponds to [ʒʷ] in Adyghe |
| Macedonian | Macedonian | вода | [vɔda] | 'water' | See Macedonian phonology |
| Maltese | 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 |
| Occitan | Limousin | vol | [vɔl] | 'flight' | See Occitan phonology |
| Occitan | Provençal | vol | [vɔl] | 'flight' | See Occitan phonology |
| Persian | Western | ورزش | [værzeʃ] | 'sport' | See Persian phonology |
| Polish | Polish | wór | | 'bag' | See Polish phonology |
| Portuguese | Portuguese | vila | [ˈvilɐ] | 'town' | See Portuguese phonology |
| Romanian | Romanian | val | [väl] | 'wave' | See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Russian | волосы | [ˈvʷo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞] | 'hair' | Contrasts with palatalized form; may be an approximant [ʋ] instead. See Russian phonology |
| Scottish Gaelic | Scottish Gaelic | a-bhos | [əˈvɔs̪] | 'over here' | Loosely articulated, can resemble [β]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Serbo-Croatian | voda | [vɔ'da] | 'water' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Slovak | 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 | Spanish | afgano | [ävˈɣ̞äno̞] | 'Afghan' | Allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants. See Spanish phonology |
| Swedish | Swedish | vägg | [ˈvɛɡː] | 'wall' | See Swedish phonology |
| Turkish | Turkish | vade | [väːˈd̪ɛ] | 'due date' | The main allophone of /v/; realized as bilabial [β ~ β̞] in certain contexts. See Turkish phonology |
| Tyap | Tyap | vak | [vag] | 'road' | |
| Urdu | Urdu | ورزش | [vəɾzɪʃ] | ‘exercise’ | See Hindustani phonology |
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese | và | [vaː˨˩] | 'and' | In southern dialects, is in free variation with [j]. See Vietnamese phonology |
| West Frisian | West Frisian | weevje | [ˈʋeɪ̯vjə] | 'to weave' | Never occurs in word-initial positions. See West Frisian phonology |
| Welsh | Welsh | fi | [vi] | 'I' | See Welsh phonology |
| Yi | Yi | ꃶ/vu | [vu˧] | 'intestines' | |