On 2007-05-27 00:06, Sean Whalen wrote:
> It doesn't necessarily prove anything more than a
> sporadic xw>f in some form of Old Frisian.
I believe it's unique rather than sporadic. One could also say that
*wulfaz, *fimf-, etc. prove nothing but a sporadic *xw > *f in
Proto-Germanic. It's probably the majority view among historical
linguists nowadays. In my opinion, however, the assimilatory influence
of labials is borne out by the data, and therefore a form like <fial> is
expected.
Piotr