Re: [tied] Re: -ow

At 5:08:12 on Wednesday, 29 September 2004, tgpedersen wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer
> <mcv@...> wrote:

>> On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 11:07:04 +0000, tgpedersen
>> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>> >But did Greek beta go directly /b/ > /v/, or did it have an
>> >intermediate stage /w/?

>> No. [b] > [B] > [v].

> So the greek beta wasn't 'definitely v'. /B/ is a good
> enough approximation to /w/ for someone who wants to
> design an alfabet for a written language.

As I recall, beta had already ceased to be pronounced [b]
several centuries before the Cyrillic alphabet was devised.
Moreover, Ptolemy writes <Ouirokonion>, not <Birokonion>,
for Roman <Viroconium> (Wroxeter, Salop.).

Brian