Pronunciation of v in German
The pronunciation of the letter v is one of the few cases of ambiguity in German orthography. The German language normally uses the letter "f" to indicate the sound /f/ (as used in the English word fight) and "w" to indicate the sound /v/ (as in victory). However, the letter "v" does occur in a large number of German words, where its pronunciation is /f/ in some words but /v/ in others.
Originally, in Middle High German, the sound /f/ had been voiced in some dialects and was therefore written "v". Contemporary German has gone back to the unvoiced pronunciation, but idiosyncratically retained the medieval spelling. As a general (and defective) rule, it can thus be said that "v" is pronounced /f/ in originally German words and /v/ in words of foreign origin.
Rules
V is pronounced /f/
- in the name of the letter v /faʊ/;
- in the frequent prefix ver- and all words constructed with it, such as vergessen, Vertreibung etc.;
- in the following words and all their derivations: Vater (father); Veilchen, Veigerl (viola flower); Veitstanz (the neuropathy St Vitus Dance); Vers (verse); Vesper (snack, small meal, evening prayer service); Vest, Veste (in geographical names: fortress); Vettel (pejorative: old woman); Vetter (male cousin); Viech (pejorative: animal); Vieh (livestock); viel (much, many); vier (four); Vize (vice-, deputy); Viztum (historic government official; today humorously: sub-agent); Vlies (raw wool, fleece); Vogel (bird); Vogt (historic rural administrator, reeve); Volk (folk, nation); voll (full); von (of, from); vor (before, in front of);
- in the following given names: Eva, Veit, Veltin, Volbrecht and all those beginning with Volk-, such as Volker;
- at the beginning of German family and place names, apart from names of foreign descent and few exceptions (this often leads to mispronunciations among English-speakers, who falsely use /v/ in names like Vettel);
- at the beginning of Dutch family and place names; word-initial v is actually traditionally pronounced /v/ in Dutch, although /f/ is currently very common in the northern varieties, found in the Netherlands.
V is pronounced /v/ (or /ʋ/)
- where it occurs in the middle of a word stem, usually following the stressed vowel, as in Leverkusen, but also in November (however, exceptions to this rule are some place names, most prominently Hannover /haˈnoːfɐ/;
- at the beginning of words and given names other than those listed above, such as Vakuum, vage (all of which are of foreign descent, mostly Latin or French, and most especially loanwords of English origin);
- in family and place names which are neither German nor Dutch.
Pronunciation varies between /f/ and /v/
- in the word Evangelium (gospel), where both alternatives may be considered standard;
- in the words Larve (larva) and Nerven (nerves), where /f/ is the standard form and /v/ is used only by few speakers;
- in a number of words, such as Vikar (vicar), Viper (viper), Vitrine (closet, cabinet), where /v/ is the standard form and /f/ is used only by few (mostly less-educated) speakers.