--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> But the /w/ > /g, v/ dichotomy is due to regional
> and/or diachronic considerations, right?
AFAIK Germanic loans in Old French (and in Western Romance in general)
had /w/ which later > /gW/ (> /g/), while Romance words had /v/, a
situation not unlike that of English. Words like *vad-/wad- "ford" and
*vas-/*was- "wetland" existed in both Romance and Germanic, so I
expect there would have been some hesitancy wrt choosing between /w/
and /v/ in them.
Torsten