Rather recently. The change is not quite
complete in Ukrainian and Belarusian, where the syllable-final pronunciation is
[w]. The Proto-Slavic pronunciation of *v was clearly less consonantal than the
standard transcription suggests -- either [w] or [B]. In many Slavic languages
/v/ still patterns with sonorants as regards voicing assimilation, phonotactic
constraints, etc.
Of course Classical Latin had [w] for
consonantal <u/v>. Some Indologists whose opinion I
have asked say that Old Indic <v> was also bilabial and
semivocalic rather than fricative. There are numerous parallels between Romance
and Middle Indo-Aryan initial strengthening and medial lenition: Skt ya- >
MIA ja- (here <j> = palatal affricate), vasanta > basanta ([w] > [B]
> [b]).
(As regards lenition, Indo-Aryan languages
show developments like mata- > mada > maa -- just like
French.)
Interestingly, English seems to be the sole
IE language to have preserved the "original" PIE pronunciation of *w in
prevocalic positions.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 11:32 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Slavic peoples and places
Since Slavic is IE at some time in the development there must
have been w > v. When?