Consonants /v/ versus /ʒ/, 2 pairs
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The spelling of /v/ is <v>. The /ʒ/ sound is spelled <su>.

The contrast is between two voiced fricatives fairly well separated in the mouth. It is unlikely to cause a problem.

The /v/ sound can occur in any position in the syllable, but /ʒ/ only occurs finally or intervocalically, other than in foreign names or loan words such as gendarme. /ʒ/ is in any case a very rare phoneme, found in only 334 words in the source dictionary.


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Trevor treasure

John Higgins, Shaftesbury, January 2010
updated Chiang Mai, 2025