[f]→[b]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 3/5
Voiceless labiodental fricative to Voiced bilabial plosive
The shift from the voiceless labiodental fricative [f] to the voiced bilabial stop [b] involves both fortition (strengthening) and voicing. It is relatively rare as a regular historical sound law but is very common in loanword adaptation when a language lacks native labiodental fricatives, and in child language acquisition.
Phonetic Effects
Fortition, Voicing, Stopping
Language Examples
violin [v/f] (English)→baiorin バイオリン [b]— Japanese lacks native /f/ and /v/; English /v/ adapted as [b] in early loanwords. More recent loans may use [ɸ] or [v] as Japanese phonology expands.
fish [f]→[bɪʃ]— Stopping: children substitute bilabial stop [b] for labiodental fricative [f]; a universal pattern in L1 acquisition across many language communities.
Related Transformations
More Germanic Shifts
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