USAGE: f/v alternations (was: Re: derivation question)

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
> > I also found:
> >   M-W: scarfs, English-Danish dict: scarfs, also scarves.
> >   M-W: roofs, /-fs/ or /-vz/
> >   M-W: leaves, also leafs
>
> Interesting, I've never heard "roofs" with /vz/ or "leafs", except in
> the name of the Canadian hockey team "The Maple Leafs".
I actually find it a little difficult to tell what I use most of the time, as
many of these words we've listed are not necessarily ones that are used
commonly in *both* singular and plural (e.g., I don't use "roof" in the
plural too much).  Moreover, the f/v alternation is common enough in
my dialect that it could have become a productive system long after
the original rule of intervocalic voicing disappeared.


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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
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"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

There's nothing particularly wrong with the
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