How these sounds differ
bv
Voiced Labiodental Affricate
- Voicing
- voiced
- Place
- labiodental
- Manner
- affricate
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 2 / 500
pf
Voiceless Labiodental Affricate
- Voicing
- voiceless
- Place
- labiodental
- Manner
- affricate
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 6 / 500
Cross-linguistic distribution
2
Languages with bv
2
Languages with both
6
Languages with pf
2 languages in our database contrast both sounds as distinct phonemes. Languages that have one but not the other tend to merge them into a single phoneme — meaning speakers of those languages often struggle to hear the distinction when learning a language that contrasts them.