From: tsdoughty@...
Message: 2107
Date: 2002-09-06
I don't know if you've read or heard this, or not, but 'v' is voiced
and 'f' is unvoiced.
To my sensibilities, at least, that is a non-subtle distinction.
That was the point, that what is subtle or non-subtle lies in a person's ear, and that children raised in a language come to regard certain phonetic qualities as important while disregarding other ones. This becomes fixed at a certain point in the child's development. To an English ear 'v' & 'f'' are important distinctions, while to a native Icelandic ear they are not.
Tim