LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.08 (01) [E]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 08 February 2006 * Volume 01
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.07 (03) [E]

Indo-European k mutated to Proto-Germanic x ('ch' as in German, Dutch, 
Scots) and IE kw to xw ('chw'). Later initial PG x became h- in Common 
Germanic, and xw became hw. In many modern Germanic languages hw and w 
became w, German, Dutch, Low Saxon and Frisian have w, and Swedish v in 
all cases, but Danish still spells hv versus v, although both are 
pronounced v, English has wh vs w, and Nynorsk (New Norwegian) even has 
kv and v. I think Icelandic has the same pronunciation as Nynorsk but I'm 
not sure about the orthography right now, I'd have to look that up.

Btw: in the late 1800s/early 1900s, (West-)Frisian also had hw-, but this 
was an artificial, etymological spelling and it was abolished after that.

And how is the situation in Scotland?

Ingmar Roerdinkholder
    
>Paul Finlow-Bates:
>>My understanding (real linguists please feel free to shoot me down!) is 
that
>"wh" has its origins back in proto-Germanic times, when Indo-European "kw"
>(in accordance with Grimm's Law?) mutated to "hw". Many IE "k" words 
became
>"h" words, e.g. *kanis, "dog" becomes *hondaz.  Old English actually 
spells
>"wh" words the other way round, e.g. "hwit" for white.  Note that 
many "wh"
>words are questions, and there's a clue; the French-borrowed "question"
>still has the "kw" sound, because Romance languages never went through
>Grimm's Shift.

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