Tristan Mc Leay wrote:
> I just have a couple of questions about Icelandic, Finnish and English.
>
> How is <v> pronounced in Icelandic?
[v\], though devoiced next to aspirated stops.
> I gather that <kv> is pronounced
> [kw],
[kv\_0]
> but listening to an Icelandic band with it seems less than
> brilliant clarity (Sigur Rós), some other cases of <v> seem to be [v],
> some [w] and some silent. (I suppose I shouldn't complain too
> much---some cases of English <w> are [v], some [w], others silent, and
> some participate in digraphs. But on the other hand, all our <w>=[v] are
> borrowings.)
You are victim to the common English-speakers fallacy of hearing [v\]
sometimes as [v] and sometimes as [w]. In reality it falls between.
>
> Are Finnish unvoiced stops aspirated?
No.
> Has its pronunciation been
> influenced particularly under the influnce of Germanic languages and
> Swedish in particular?
Only negatively, in that pre-Finnish lost sounds that lacked
a counterpart in proto-germanic.
>
> A lot of older English texts with otherwise apparently modern spelling
> spell 'diverse' as 'divers'. When did the final -e become usual?
Late 17th early 18th century,probably, as it was then
the present spellings became fixed.
> --
> Tristan.
>
>
--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se
Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
(Tacitus)