V (letter): Difference between revisions
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As '''v''' rarely ends words, so it rarely occurs before consonants; it does, though, in the French word for '''Âpril''', adopted as a girl's name, '''Ávril'''. | As '''v''' rarely ends words, so it rarely occurs before consonants; it does, though, in the French word for '''Âpril''', adopted as a girl's name, '''Ávril'''. | ||
'''v''' occurs after '''s''' to signify a [[whistled consonant]] in words from the [[Shona language]], as in '''[[Masvingo|Masvíngo]]''' and '''[[Morgan Tsvangirai|Mǒrgan Tsvángiraî]]'''. English-speakers often pronounce the latter name as | '''v''' occurs after '''s''' to signify a [[whistled consonant]] in words from the [[Shona language]], as in '''[[Masvingo|Masvíngo]]''' and '''[[Morgan Tsvangirai|Mǒrgan Tsvángiraî]]'''. English-speakers often pronounce the latter name as *Chángiraî. | ||
==Scientific uses== | ==Scientific uses== | ||
Revision as of 14:33, 30 March 2013
V, v is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the twenty-second letter of most variants, being placed after U and before W, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈviː], vee.
V is also the Roman numeral representing the number 5.
The phoneme /v/ occurs in many languages, but is absent in many others; many speakers may substitute some kind of [b] or [u]. For example, Japanese makes use of both: ウイルス uirusu 'virus' and ライブ raibu 'live'.
Use in English
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use in English | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabetical word list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retroalphabetical list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Common misspellings |
v is a labiodental fricative, partially or completely voiced, air passing between the lower lip and upper front teeth as they touch. It differs from f only in that the vocal folds vibrate, which does not occur for f: compare vîle and fîle (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings). This is in contrast to w, where both lips are used without touching each other or any teeth: compare vèil cover = vâle valley and, rhyming, wâil cry. The v sound involves more friction as air passes through the mouth; for w the lips are further apart, making the sound more vowel-like. Examples: vúlgar, véry, vāst, háve, wâve, and finally in spív, Slàv, dërv.
v is rare at the end of a word, and it is most commonly found in that position pronounced 'f' in Slavonic (i.e. Russian, Bulgarian, etc.) names: Rachmáninov, Prokófiev, Medvédev *Midvyédiff, Krùshchev (-chóff), Mólotov; it is also in Névsky (pronounced v) and Tchaikóvsky (usually pronounced f).
Being rare at the end, v hardly ever needs to be doubled, as it is in révved úp thê éngine, to avoid *rêved, and spívvery, to avoid *spîvery. v does not normally have to be doubled after a preceding short vowel (usually é): séven, cléver, héaven, éver, évery, séver, bévy, lòver, drível, cívil. But it doubles before final y to emphasise that the preceding vowel is short: chívvy, sávvy (compare chîves and nâvy). So flívver is unusual, and it rhymes with ríver.
The preceding vowel is long in: êven, fêver, hâver, fâvour, sâviour, ôver, clôver, drîver, dîver, wâver, hâven and Stêven (= the more regular spelling of Stêphen, which does not have an 'f' sound).
As v rarely ends words, so it rarely occurs before consonants; it does, though, in the French word for Âpril, adopted as a girl's name, Ávril.
v occurs after s to signify a whistled consonant in words from the Shona language, as in Masvíngo and Mǒrgan Tsvángiraî. English-speakers often pronounce the latter name as *Chángiraî.
Scientific uses
- V: volt, unit of electric potential (difference)
- v: velocity
- V: vanadium