American English Phonetics

11.2.1 Labio-Dental Fricatives: /f,v/

The place of articulation of GA /f,v/ is basically the same as that of AN /f,v/. In emphatic styles or in the pronunciation of citation forms, Dutch tends to have strong friction, while GA frequently uses a complete closure so that a voiceless or voiced labio-dental stop is produced.

Since initial and medial GA /v/ frequently has little or no friction it is often identical with AN /ʋ/, as in non-Southern Dutch West. A good approach to initial GA /v/ as in vest may therefore be to start from AN /ʋ/, which is a voiced labiodental approximant. Note that the absence of friction and the presence of voice in the approximant realization of GA /v/ may sometimes cause Dutch listeners to hear /b/ rather than /v/, so that a word like vanished may be heard as banished. Practice the following contrasts:

[f] – [v]              file – vile; fix – Vic’s; fast – vast; few – view

[f] – [v]              surfing – serving; safer – savor; stiffer – liver; rifle – rival

[f] – [v]              safe – save; proof – prove; surf – serve; strife – strive