fʼ vs v

Voiceless Labiodental Fricative vs Voiced Labiodental Fricative

How these sounds differ

fʼ

Voiceless Labiodental Fricative

Voicing: voiceless
Place: labiodental
Manner: fricative
Class: consonant
In languages: 1 / 500

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Voiced Labiodental Fricative

Voicing: voiced
Place: labiodental
Manner: fricative
Class: consonant
In languages: 131 / 500

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Cross-linguistic distribution

Languages with fʼ

Languages with both

131

Languages with v

1 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.

Has v, not fʼ (20)

Persian Indo-European Breton Indo-European Logbara Central Sudanic Gbeya Atlantic-Congo Beembe Atlantic-Congo Ga Atlantic-Congo Dagbani Atlantic-Congo Moroccan Arabic Afro-Asiatic Kpelle Mande Maltese Afro-Asiatic Margi Afro-Asiatic Angas Afro-Asiatic Apinaye Nuclear-Macro-Je Guarani Tupian Hopi Uto-Aztecan Aleut Eskimo-Aleut Malagasy Austronesian Yay Tai-Kadai Lahu Sino-Tibetan North Azerbaijani Turkic