"The 'v' in 'víkingr' was definitely pronunced like english 'w'.
Because of this, one should really write 'wiking' in english.
Personally I pronunce it with the w-sound when discussing the
subject in that language."
Yes, ´v´ was definitely pronounced like ´w´ during at least the
earlier half of the viking age and probably until the end of the
viking age in many Scandinvian dialects; however, the question as to
whether one should pronounce ´v´ or ´w´ today has more to do with
whether or not one wants to speak norse. Those who wish to actually
speak norse must learn to pronounce ´v´, whereas those who do not
wish to speak norse may pronounce ´w´ in quoting norse words in a
non-nordic language. ´W´ does not work with nordic speakers today,
much as using a pre-viking age pronunciation would not have worked
with those living in the viking age. Although we know that many
dialects of one and the same language were spoken in viking age
Scandinavia, attempting to pronounce any of these old dialects today
should clearly come long after having actually learned to speak a
living Scandinavian language. In order to pronounce ´w´ in a modern
norse dialect today, we would have to change the pronunciation of
the whole language according to whatever scheme was decided upon in
order to be consistent with whatever old dialect and era we were
aiming for. Also, viking age ´w´ was not exactly like modern english
´w´, but rather closer to modern norse ´u´.
"In the central Scandinavian dialect called 'dalska' one still has
this pronunciation, and ON 'víkingr' should be pronunced something
like [waikiNg] in that dialect, where [N] means the ng-sound."
There are definitely many modern dialects spoken in Scandinavia
today which preserve individual sounds found in few or no other
living dialects. Some of these sounds are ancient, others are not.
New Zealanders and Texans speak the same language, but estimating
the respective similarity of each of these dialects to Anglo-Saxon
in terms of actual sounds would be difficult, if not impossible.
Fortunately, grammar is more important than pronunciation. Texan and
New Zealandic are the same language because they share the same or
nearly the same grammar. If I were a viking age Norwegian, I could
move to a given district in Sweden and not have to learn a "new"
language. The locals, however, would always be able to hear from my
speech that I was from "out of town". Grammar will make a good king,
but his brother Pronounciation is not suitable for the throne.