--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
> PIE *w- has other reflexes as well, e.g. Irish f-, Welsh gw-, and
Armenian g-, whereas /v-/, which is a very common reflex, has
developed further into /b-/ e.g. in some Indic and Iranian languages,
and in Spanish (perhaps also in Thracian). *w has been a fairly
unstable consonant, and English is quite exceptional in preserving
something close to its original quality to this very day.
>
> Piotr
>
And the various Jutish dialects have too.
In my opinion w > v in Europe outside English was specifically caused
by French influence in the 18th century, along with "thick" l
> "thin" l, apical r > uvular R (apparently not equally successful
changes), a prestige packet. The uniqueness of English is that this
class or cultural struggle was so to speak frozen in time, so that v
and w now coexist as independent phonemes in that language.
We've discussed this a long time ago.
Torsten