Classification of the pronunciations of the /v/ consonant in the context _/v/V in the Romanian language

Abstract

We analyze a set of statistical features of the pronunciations of the /v/ consonant in the Romanian language, in words starting with /v/ followed by a vowel. The analysis reveals several types of pronunciations of /v/. Increasing the statistic from a previous work from 19 to 29 speakers we conclude that beyond the voiced / non-voiced/ fluctuating (voiced - unvoiced) classes, the /v/ in the said contexts fall into distinct subclasses. This classification shows that, while at the perceptive level the Romanian speakers do not distinguish different pronunciations, at the acoustical level the /v/ in the Romanian spoken language is almost as rich as in other languages as Spanish and German.