Dutch "w" (was: Re: Slavic peoples and places)

--- In cybalist@..., jjmcgr@... wrote:

> first post after reading for a long time....
>
> I'm of the opinion 9but cannot footnote sources) that all the
> continental Germanic languages which use the orthographic symbol W
> for the [v] sound originally pronounced that sound [w]. Otherwise

the

> Latin symbol for the v sound [v] or sometimes [f] wound have been
> used as it was in Old English. {Apparently to the German ear in
> earlier times Latin or Romance [f] and [v] sounded the same or very
> similar. In medieval times there was a sound shift in these
> continental languages [and even earlier in Scandanavian-- before
> these were written down, ergo no W character!] where [w] became

[v].

> This is a common sound shift in the history of human languages

[also

> happened in Latin.... Greek took it even further with [v] becoming
> [b]]. I suspect any [w] sounds in Dutch or Swedish/Danish now are
> either dialectal differences or allophones of the /v/ phomeme in

the

> respective language.

As opposed to what? Non-dialectal differences? I can see you're
trying to make a distinction that seems very important to you but I
can't figure out what it is.

>I had a Russian teach in college who used to
> say "work on your vowels" and pronounced vowels [wovelz]so it can
> happen even with Russian speakers...
>
> John McGrath

Torsten