Labial Fricatives in the History of Frisian

Abstract

Abstract The article has two aims: (1) to survey the main developments of labial fricatives in the history of Frisian; (2) to explain the varied developments of the voiced labial fricative more effectively based on the evidence Old Frisian spellings and reflexes in Modern Frisian dialects. As to the latter aim, it is argued that the currently accepted structural phonological explanation for the emergence of a systematic voicing alternation /f ~ v/ in early Old Frisian is too rigid. In agreement with Theodor Siebs, variable retention and lenition of the voiced bilabial fricative [β] presents another way of accounting for many of the Old Frisian spellings and Modern Frisian dialectal forms.