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, but /v/ in some other words.
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, we can thus say 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); 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);
- 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.