I.S.P Joaqun V.

Gonzalez
Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia

/f/ and /v/

/f/ and /v/ are labiodental fricative consonants. /f/ is
voiceless fortis and /v/ is voiced lenis. But, what
does this exactly mean?
Why voiceless or voiced?
A phoneme (one individual sound) can be voiced or voiceless.
Voiced phonemes engage the vocal cords and voiceless phonemes don't
engage the vocal cords. As you know, in your larynx you'll find two vocal
cords that vibrate to produce sounds (voiced) that are then manipulated
by the organs of speech. Vocal cords can also open to allow air through
to make sounds with the mouth alone (voiceless). Is to say, when
pronouncing sound /f/ the vocal cords do not vibrate and but they do
when pronouncing /v/.

Do they vibrate? Dont they?

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia

Why labiodental?
This is related to the place where the sound is produced, is to say,
the place of articulation. The term place of articulation refers to the part
where the sound is produced or where there is the most contact or near
contact of articulators. This is another way in which consonants are
classified.
Now, try producing words such as: five, flat, prove, voice. In all of
these words you need to bring the bottom or lower lip near or in contact
with the upper teeth. Therefore, you are producing a labiodental sound.

In conclusion, the airflow can be modified at various points within

vocal organs to produce distinct speech sounds. The point where a
sound is produced is referred to as its place of articulation.

Why fricative?
Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by
placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, as
was mentioned above.

Try saying words using /f/ again: face, fog, fly. The mouth comes into a
position that blocks the passage of the airstream, but not making a complete
closure. The lower lip makes a light contact with the upper teeth, forming a flat
narrowing. The escaping air passes through this narrow passage with friction,
rub and turbulence. Remember that for /f/ this friction will be voiceless, and it is
an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth
only (and not through the nose).

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia
The following phonemes are considered fricative according to their manner of
articulation:
/ f, v, , , s, z, , , h /

/f/ sound in actual use: Full distribution.

The sound /f/ can be found in different parts of the words. At the
beginning, at the middle and at the end. Thats why its said to have a
full distribution through the words.
Initial position feet, fail, photo, fat, fault
Medial position affair, comfort, defend tougher, defend
Final position laugh, cough, roof, proof

Spellings for /f/

After producing these words, have you noticed something strange with /f/?
Probably their spellings. As you might have seen, not always this sound is
produced when we see a letter F in a word. Lets go deeper into the spellings of
this phoneme:

< F > as in friend, fork, selfish, fire, fruit

<FF> as in coffee, stuff, stiff
<PH> as in phonetics, photo, physics, phrase
<GH> as in rough, draught, enough

Problems for Spanish Speakers

The sound /f/ is also found in Spanish as in: feo, frente, familia; so its not
usually a problem for Spanish speakers this production when learning English.

How can we tell the difference between / f /and / v / in

practice?

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia
Touch your top teeth with your bottom lip, and breathe out. Dont use your
voice. Hold the sound and add your voice.

What happens when we produce Labio-dental fricatives?

While the soft palate is raised the nasal resonator is shut off. The inner
surface of the lower lip makes a light contact with the edge of the upper teeth,
so that the escaping air produces friction. The actual contact point will vary
according to the adjacent sound. e.g : When producing /f/ with a strongly
rounded vowel or a bilabial plosive following, the contact on the lower lip tends
to be more retracted (fool, obvious, roof) than in the case of a front spread
vowel (feel, leaf). For /f/, the friction is voiceless, whereas there may be vocal
fold vibration accompanying /v/.

/v/ sound in actual use: Full distribution.

The sound /v/ can be found in different parts of the words. At the
beginning, at the middle and at the end. Thats why its said to have a
full distribution through the words.

Initial position vex, vat, vast, vain

Medial position ever, over, silver, cover
Final position Leave, give, have, move, dove, grove

Spellings for /V/

Lets go deeper into the spellings of this phoneme:

<v> as in vice, voice, vine

<f> as in of
<ph> as in Stephen, nephew

Variants for /V/

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia
This phoneme also has some variants given in a different context:
- Word final /v/ may assimilate to /f/ before a fortis consonant
initial in the following word:
e.g: have to (regularly) / love to / have some (rarely)
-

In familiar speech [v] may be elided in the case of the

unaccented form of <of> and <have>:

< a lot of money> [ lt mni ]
<I could have bought it> [a kd

b:t t]

Problems for Spanish Speakers

The learner will substitute [] for [v]. In Spanish b and V are pronounced
[], and we
tend to produce [] for [v].

What can we do about it?

If you bite your lower lip you will produce the right friction for b.
What happens when we produce a glottal sound:
They are produced when there is a narrowing or an
obstruction causing friction but not vibration, between the vocal folds.

/h/ sound in actual use: Complementary

distribution.
How to produce it in practice...
Open your mouth and breathe out. Don't use your voice but try to make a
noise.

How do we produce the fortis glottal fricative /h/?

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia

For the production of /h/ the air is

expelled from the lungs with
considerable pressure,
causing some friction throughout the
vocal tract. The upper part the
vocal tract is already
shaped for the articulation of the
following vowel sound. With the
onset of the vocal fold
vibration of the vowel,the air pressure
is reduced. For the production of this sound the vocal cords do not
vibrate, therefore, they produce no voice.
Distribution
Initial position: heat, hen, ham, hot
Medial position: ahead
/h/ is not pronounced initially in hour, honest, honour, heir, heiress; or
medially in words such as, exhaust, exhilarate, exhibit, vehicle, and in
some suffixes: shephard, Durham,Clapham, etc.
Lets go deeper into the spellings of the fortis glottal fricative

Spellings for /h/

Lets go deeper into the spellings of this phoneme:

<h> as in how, horse, hate, hoe, high, here

<who> as in who, whom

Variants for /V/

- Some speakers use a voiced allophone of /h/ when used between voiced
sounds. In these cases the stream of /h/ is accompanied by vocal fold
vibration.
e.g : anyhow, perhaps, behind.
- In some types of regional speech /h/ is lost. So, no distinction is made
between minimal pairs such as hill, ill; hair air.
- Certain form words, (especially have, has, had, pronouns and pronominal
adjectives),frequently lose /h/ in unaccented, non-initial situations in

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia

connected speech . This feature is usually considered uneducated

speech.
e.g He pushed him on his back - hi pushed im on iz back - I could have hit
her - Ikud ev hit e

Problems for Spanish Speakers

Spanish speakers produce the voiceless velar fricative /x/.
/x/ has velar friction and the grapheme /h/ is mute in spanish. Therefore,
learners should practise with pairs containing /h/ plus vowel and those
with initial vowel. Such as: hill and hill.

Special features of /h/

/h/ is elided when the following words occur in weakly accented positions,
and non initial positions in the utterance: he, him, his, her, have, had,
has.
What is elision?
Elision is the omission of a sound in speech. It is common in casual
conversation.

I.S.P Joaqun V. Gonzalez

Phonetics I C
Camila Velzquez / Rosario M. Gonzalez Boyle / Enzo Samora / Martin Segovia