Re: Middle English question

On Sat, 31 Jul 1999, BP Jonsson wrote:

>
> Acc. to my "Nederlaendsk Grammatik" _Boudewijn_ should be [bOud@VEin] with
> [V]=labiodental glide (script-v/upsilon).  Is it antiquated, or what?  To
> distinguish [V] and a fricative [v] seems nightmarish to me, since Swedish
> "v" is mostly [V].  My native dialect has a bilabial/labiovelar glide
> distinct from the labiodental one in some words (from historical /hv/ and
> /v/ before sonorants, for the curious), so that feels easy to me(!), but a
> labiodental fricative/glide distinction doesnt...
>
Whether it is a glide or a fricative is regional, as Dirk has pointed
out. But I've lived west, south and east, and I am terminally confused
as to which one I use myself regularly. A glide, mostly, I think. But
I'm not much of a phonetician.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt