Re[2]: [tied] Other IE language with /w/

At 5:19:42 AM on Monday, October 17, 2005, tgpedersen wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Dagfinn H"
> <captain_yossarian@...> wrote:

>> Slightly OT, but nevertheless: during what period of the
>> historical development of Latin is it reckoned that /w/
>> became /v/? The common spelling for both /u/ and /w/
>> (<v>) lingered for some time, but I acknowledge that this
>> may have been due to standardization.

> Thw w-'s of Germanic loans are kept separate from the
> inherited v-'s in Western Romance, at least, becoming gW-
> (> g- in some languages), written gu-. That provides a
> terminus ante quem (late imperial times?).

Latin [w] > [B] in the second half of the first century CE
at least in some sociolects, according to Michael Weiss
(<ling.cornell.edu/Weiss/CGL_36_VL_and_PR_Pt-1_4.pdf>), and
a history of Portuguese cites Grandgent for the assertion
that the change dates to the early empire. I don't know
when [B] > [v].

Brian