V

Bedeutung (Englisch)

The twenty-second letter of the German alphabet, called Vau and written in the Latin script.

Synonyme

Vanadium

Ausgesprochen als (IPA)

/faʊ̯/

Etymologie (Englisch)

For the origin of the letter, see v.
Orthography and pronunciation
Germanic f was pronounced [v] in some dialects of Middle High German and was predominantly spelt v. This voicing was later reversed stem-initially in most dialects and stem-internally in some (including Standard German). In inherited words, the spelling mostly switched back to f accordingly. This always happened before l, r, u, ü, but otherwise there remains a number of relicts. These are the prefix ver-, the words Frevel, Vater, Vetter, Vieh, viel, vier, Vogel, Volk, voll, von, vor, and their derivatives.
In native German proper nouns, initial V is always /f/, but the internal pronunciation is hard to predict and differs by region. For example, it is usually /f/ in northern German placenames (e.g. Hannover, Havel, Jever), but /v/ in western ones (e.g. Grevenbroich, Leverkusen, Overath).
V was retained in words of foreign origin and its pronunciation varied. The contemporary standard is normally /v/, but always /f/ in Eva, Vau, Veilchen, Veit, Vettel, Vlies, Vogt. The words Vers, Vesper, Vize have /f/ in Germany, but usually /v/ in Austria. Both ways are de-facto standard in Evangelium, hieven, Larve, Nerven, Pulver (though dictionaries may recognise only one form or the other).