>> > So could /w/ > /v/ in Latin have
>> >originated under Etruscan influence?
>> There is no /v/.
>I'm talking about /v/ that developed in Vulgar Latin
There two things are against you.
Firstly, Etruscan influence had been almost totally eroded well before
that change. The emperor Claudius wrote a grammar of Etruscan, but he may
have been one of the last few people to know the language.
Sceondly, we know the process of change begins with intervocalic /b/,
which moves to the bilabial fricative /B/. Speakers seem to have confused
the sounds of written <v> and >b>, hence some restructuring of the language.
Then (as far as I understand it) after the merge of original /v/ and
intervocalic /b/, the resultant /B/ moves to /v/.
So Etruscan influence is not necessary or likley.
Peter