V force

--- On Sat, 2/28/09, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:

> From: Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
> Subject: [tied] Re: American Dutch dialects
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, February 28, 2009, 9:13 PM
> --- 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

I had a prof in Ling Anthro who claimed that /v/ and /f/ only arose in agricultural areas where people were bucktoothed, due to a diet of grains. Any truth at all to such a suggestion or is it a crock of bolshevik?