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Sound laws · Law 12 · Consonants

B and V merge in Spanish

B, V

Spanish

one sound: b, v = [b] (soft [β] between vowels)

French

v kept; B between vowels → v

Italian

v kept; B between vowels → v

Portuguese

v kept; B between vowels → v

Romanian

v kept; B and V between vowels often lost (cal)

Catalan

merged as in Spanish (Central Catalan); v kept in Balearic and parts of Valencia

What happened

Latin V was pronounced [w]; by imperial times it had become a fricative [β], the same sound as B between vowels, and inscriptions start confusing the two letters. Spanish merged them completely (Old Spanish still kept a contrast between vowels, lost by the 16th century), while its spelling restores b or v mostly by Latin etymology; Central Catalan made the same merger. French, Italian and Portuguese turned [β] into a lip-and-teeth v, so V stays v and B between vowels becomes v as well. Romanian keeps initial v but often lost the sound between vowels (CABALLUM → cal).

Examples

LatinItalianSpanishFrenchPortugueseRomanianCatalanEnglish relative
VĪNUM‘wine’vinovinovinvinhovinvi
VACCAM‘cow’vaccavacavachevacavacăvaca
VĪVERE‘to live’viverevivirvivreviver—viurevivid
HABĒRE‘to have’averehaberavoirhaveraveahaver
CABALLUM‘horse’cavallocaballochevalcavalocalcavallcavalry
ADVOCĀTUM‘one called to help → lawyer’avvocatoabogadoavocatadvogado—advocatadvocate

Decoder

Spanish b between vowels often matches French, Italian and Portuguese v: caballo → cheval, cavallo, cavalo; haber → avoir, avere, haver. Never try to pronounce Spanish (or Barcelona Catalan) v differently from b.

Exceptions

Spanish spelling sometimes ignores Latin: abogado (ADVOCĀTUM), barrer (VERRERE), boda (VŌTA). In Spanish vino and bino sound identical, and in Barcelona vi and bi do too, so b/v is a spelling question only. European Portuguese of the north merges them like Spanish.

Watch it happen: CLĀVEM

In your word bank