Re: Dutch questions

What's the difference between |f| and |v|, by the way? ISTR reading
that |fiets| and |vier| have (at least for some people) a different
initial consonant ... so it's not just a positional thing (|v| at the
beginning of the syllable, |f| at the end, except for exceptions, or
the like).

I'd say both of them as [f], since that's what syllable-initial |f|
and |v| sound like in German (the latter in "native" German words, at
least; it's [v] in many borrowed words).

There is regular alternation between |f| and |v|, though, isn't there?
As when adding an inflection to a word ending in |f|, it turns into
|v|? (Does that, then, change the pronunciation of the sound for those
who distinguish between |f| and |v|?)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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