The sixth letter of the Georgian alphabet is ვ
and all the resources I have describe it as being like English v
or IPA [v]
.
But especially in the common word ნახვამდის
(goodbye) the ვ
sounds a lot more like an English w
than an English v
.
So what's happening here? I can't seem to find anything mentioning approximants or semivowels in Georgian at all.
- Does the sound depend on adjacent sounds?
- Does it vary regionally?
- Does it vary from individual speaker to speaker?
Also what it does sound like w
is it an IPA [w]
or something different like a bilabial? To me it sounds a bit different to English w
but I'm not a real linguist so I can't decide what it is.