Actually, voicing is not an either/or thing, that's only what we make of it when we perceive speech. Sounds are voiced or voiceless based on their Voice Onset Timing (VOT), the difference between the release of the sound and the onset of the vibration in the vocal folds. At some boundary VOT, sounds on the one side are considered 'voiced' and sound on the other side are considered 'voiceless'. These boundaries are not the same in all languages; Dutch voicing and English voicing are quite different, to the point that prototypical English [b] sounds like protypical Dutch [p].
Fricative voicing in Dutch is hardly present anymore, especially in the western (Randstad) varieties. As a native speaker of Randstad Dutch, I think chrys20's description is spot on.
The pronunciation really depends on where you live in the Netherlands.
A friend from Zuid-Holland told me that her little sister asked: "With which f do you write 'vis'?" They pronounced the v as an f.
However, I've lived in Brabant almost my entire life and most of the time I do say v and not f (when I don't say a real v, I say something between f and v).
Most standard dialects are actually losing the voicing contrast, such that fully voicing fricatives is difficult. Most situations, it will be unvoiced in the bigger cities.
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Fricative voicing in Dutch is hardly present anymore, especially in the western (Randstad) varieties. As a native speaker of Randstad Dutch, I think chrys20's description is spot on.
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A friend from Zuid-Holland told me that her little sister asked:
"With which f do you write 'vis'?"
They pronounced the v as an f.
However, I've lived in Brabant almost my entire life and most of the time I do say v and not f (when I don't say a real v, I say something between f and v).
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