Re: Goblin? errrr... Greek, Latin and Hebrew phonology

----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, August 13, 1999 9:23 PM
Subject: Re: Goblin? errrr... Greek, Latin and Hebrew phonology


> Ed Heil wrote:
>
> > Classical Latin [w] (represented by 'v' which also represented [u])
> > changed to [v] in Medieval Latin.
>
> Well... this had more to do with the fact that Medieval Latin was more
> or less pronounced as the author's native tongue.  Hence the German
> pronunciation /tsitseRo:/, and Italian /tSitSero:ne/ for "Cicero".
>
> Medieval had no real pronunciation on its own, separate from that of
> the native speaker.
<v> changed to /v/ in Proto-Romance, possibly even in Vulgar Latin, as shown
by ancient inscriptions which interchanged <b> and <v> (not sure which
inscriptions -- possibly Pompeii?) Thus the /v/ pronunciation was not just
due to people speaking with a non-Latin accent.