NATLANG: Ukrainian question

According to Wikipedia, the letter В (ve) is pronounced [v\] or [w].
But the footnote on the difference says that it "loses its friction"
when not followed by a vowel.  Bwuh?  What friction?  [v\] is an
approximant; the only difference between it and [w] is that it's
labiodental instead of bilabial.

So I'm guessing the IPA is incorrect and it's normally [B] rather than
[v\], and softens to [w] non-prevocalically.

Is that correct?

If so, I can change the article myself (the joys of Wikipedia), but I
wanted to confirm with someone who actually knows Ukrainian. :)


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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