Re: American Dutch dialects

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
>
> > > > > I would ask, is the fact that /w/ became /v/ in Danish
> > > > > also due to French influence?
> > > >
> > > > I think it came the same way, through the same stages, Jysk
> > > > still has /w/, but also that it happened all over Europe,
> > > > Belorussian still has /w/, says Piotr. It started in the 18th
> > > > century, with French at its peak influence.
> > >
> > > Only in the 18th century? In German it started soewhere around
> > > 1350. But I can't believe that it was due to French influence.
> > > It's a natural tendency for /w/ to shift to /v/,
> >
> > That point of view makes the English unnatural.
>
> Besides, it isn'r true:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labiodental_fricative
>
>
> Torsten
>

Well, it seems to have been a natural tendency in almost all of
Europe, central Asia, Iran, India, Vietnam, and, from what I've read,
partly in Thailand and Laos, and also some varieties of Mandarin (the
Mandarin I have heard with my own ears, I have heard recent Chinese
Mandarin-speaking immigrants and tourists pronounce English /w/
consistently as [v], and when I asked them about it, they said it was
a northern trait). I don't think that these areas shifted [w] to [v]
for unnatural or artificial reasons, what could those be? Do you
think they were taught to change [w] to [v] to sound less boorish?
That could be, but over so many languages? I don't think there's
anything unnatural about /w/ becoming [v], nor is there anything
unnatural about /w/ remaining [w].

Andrew