Re: USAGE: Yet another few questions about Welsh.

Quoting Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>:

> This type of sound change is found elsewhere.  A similar thing in Greek. Y
> originally represent [u]; already in 5th cent BCE Athens & in Ionia it
> appears to have become [y] (although [u\] is a possibility). Other
> dialects retained [u] and, indeed, Doric retained [u] until well in the
> Hellenistic period, where [y] had become standard. But by the 4th cent. CE
> it appears already to have become [i] as in Modern greek.
The [u]>[u\] change also occured in Scandinavia. The presence of /i/ and /y/
was, however, apparently enough to stop it simply drifting further forward, so
[u\] either remained (as in my 'lect) or mutated into [2_w] (as in BP's 'lect).

                                                             Andreas

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