Why is have to usually pronounced half to?

asked 2017-07-21 04:35:21 -0400

PDub
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I've noticed that many (most?) people pronounce "have to" as "half to" or "hafta." Why is this? Is it peculiar to [North] American speech or does it occur in other varieties of English? I'm having difficulty thinking of other cases where v is pronounced as f. Is there a name for this phenomenon?

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answered 2017-11-30 08:05:57 -0400

splash
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... yeah, terminal devoicing with partial regressive assimilation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final-o....

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answered 2017-11-09 15:35:18 -0400

Raccoon
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I'm not an expert on English, but it looks like partial regressive assimilation – essentially, the [v] sound becomes more similar to the [t] sound that follows it.

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Asked: 2017-07-21 04:35:21 -0400

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Last updated: Jul 21 '17

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Why is have to usually pronounced half to?