[tied] Re: Stative/Perfect; Indo-European /r/

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:

>
>
> tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
>
> > Are you saying that the replacement of /w/ by /v/ in all IE
> languages that have done this is due to French influence? A

change

> that is so widespread I would think would be carried out
> independently in all the languages in which it occurred (e.g. I
> hardly think that French influence accounts for /v/ in Lithuanian).
>
>
> It took place in stages. French influenced German, German

influenced

> north and south. Baltic German influence perhaps? According to
> Piotr, /w/ is alive in Belarussian.
>
> Torsten
>
> _________________
>
> That's interesting that /w/ (from IE *w?) is alive in Belarussian -

English is therefore not alone (but if /w/ survived in Belarussian,
why did it disappear in /kw/ /gw/ /gwh/, which became k/c^ and
g/z^?). But I still have difficulty believing that French alone is
the ultimate cause of /w/ > /v/ in so many diverse languages, even
Sanskrit (admittedly the /v/ of Sanskrit was apparently an
approximant rather than a fricative)? You say this as though it is
a documented fact, not just a theory. Is it the orthodox view of
the origin of /w/ > /v/?

Not really, the orthodoxy is all in my head. ON had /v/ for whatever
reason. Wrt the last couple of centuries I think that's what
happened. BTW. those Danish dialects are all of Jutish: /w/ before
back vowel, /v/ otherwise south of the Limfjord, /w/ everywhere
north of it.


Torsten