[f]→[v]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5
Voiceless labiodental fricative to Voiced labiodental fricative
The shift from the voiceless labiodental fricative [f] to its voiced counterpart [v] is a common form of voicing lenition. It frequently occurs in intervocalic positions or as a result of grammatical markers that trigger voicing to ease articulation between voiced segments.
Phonetic Effects
Voicing, Lenition
Language Examples
wife [f]→wives [v]— Historical intervocalic voicing retained in pluralization.
leaf [f]→leaves [v]— Voicing of the fricative in the plural form.
aurifex→orfèvre [v]— Historical voicing of Latin [f] to [v] in French.
heofon [f]→[v]— Old English /f/ was realized as [v] between vowels.
Related Transformations
More Romance Shifts
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