The phonological status of the Russian ‘labial fricatives’

Abstract

It is generally accepted that Contemporary Standard Russian (CSR) has four labiodental fricatives, f, f', v and v'. Most descriptions of Russian phonetics note that two of these, the voiced v and v' differ from all other Russian obstruents in one important respect. While as a general rule obstruent sequences are either voiced throughout or voiceless throughout depending on the voiced or voiceless character of the last member of the sequence, v and v' do not effect assimilative voicing in a preceding obstruent; cf. otbój [-db-], otdát' [-dd-], otgón [-dg-], otzýv [-dz-], otžít' [-dž-], but otvál [-tv-].