View Message

you'd still expect the /r/ to remain, furthermore, in High German this prototheme remains "Ebur" - German Eber. Intervocalic /b/ in Dutch and English became initially a bilabial fricative, then the easier labiodental fricative /v/ in OE written "f". In modern German the bilabial fricative is an allophone of intervocalic /b/ in casual speech, but formally the regular stop.