b and v, they are so confusing
In mexico the initial "v" is always a "b" sound but the middle one can be either voiced or unvoiced, but I don't know why. I have read that the "b" in Habana is pronounced as a combo of both voiced and unvoiced.
3 Answers
In Spanish, there are two allophones for the /b/ phoneme:
| Symbol | Explanation |
|---|---|
| [b] | Plosive sound - follows a nasal consonant (m or n) or that comes after a pause (such as at the beginning of a word that starts a sentence) |
| [??] | Approximant - sounded in all other instances. When this sound is formed, the lips never close completely as with the plosive. |
If you are interested, here is a link to a site which provides audio examples of these two sounds. To get them, simply click on the tab labeled "lugar" and then click on the tab labeled "labial." Then, click on the sound that you are interested in hearing and you will be provided with four separate examples articulated by a native speaker: Las sonidas del español
Both the B and the V are always voiced. Maybe you should take a serious course in phonology before making such statements.
See izanoni's post, by the way.
You can check out this link as it is a pretty common question.
