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andreu@andreubotella.com ("Andreu Botella") wrote:
Today, in random linguistics thoughts of a possibly-ADHD brain:
I wonder when the name Stephen had to have entered the English language, given that the sound /f/ in Greek "Stephanos" became /v/ in English.
In Old English /f/ and /v/ were not distinct phonemes – instead, /v/ is how /f/ was pronounced between vowels. And I think /f/ and /v/ only became separate phonemes after the Norman conquest of England, with a bunch of French loanwords entering the language?