Re: [tied] Re: -ow

From: Joao
Message: 34373
Date: 2004-09-30

The same way, Valerius became Oualerios.
The <V> in Greek will appear later, as a shift from <B>, e.g. Basilios > Vasilios
 
Joao SL
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Mulraney
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: -ow

Brian M. Scott wrote:


>
>>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.).

That's because he was transcribing the Roman pronunciation, which
pronounced 'v' as 'w'. For that matter, the distinction between the
letters "V" and "U" is a later innovation - so the Roman name was
<VIROCONIVM> or (to better suggest the sounds to our eyes) <uiroconium>.

Stephen
--
A clever man commits no minor blunders (Goethe)