From: alexmoeller@...
Message: 17362
Date: 2003-01-03
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr GasiorowskiBut returning to PIE, it seems that the form "uie" > "v" and the "ui" >
> <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