In "Appendix E" of LR Tolkien
informs us that V "has the sound of English v"
in Quenya and Sindarin. Now, as is well known, the V of English is a voiced
labio-dental fricative. F in Quenya is also identical to English F, being an
unvoiced labio-dental frecative. Yet this was not always so. Before the
exile of the Ņoldor it was a bilabial fricative (VT41:7,8). It was
strengthened to labio-dental by the influence of Telerin, to avoid merging
with the bilabial approximant HW. This change did not occur in the Valarin
dialect.
wilya is listed as the older form of vilya in "Appendix E" and the
"Etymologies" lists several words originally beginning in W changing
to V,
e.g. wahta > vahta. This change does not seem plausible if it were
straight to fricative and labio-dental. Such immediate changes do not
usually occur. It would seem more reasonable, if the change was first from
the weak bilabial approximant W to a stronger bilabial fricative V. The
resulting forms would not collide with any pre-existing forms, since the
"Etymolgies" list no words beginning originally with V. After getting
close
to F in form, it would change with it to labio-dental.
But why the change? Maybe the Eldar of Aman did not consider the approximant
W very euphonious. To state my personal sound-taste, I think that the sound
is too loose and floating. To me, it is in too large a contrast with the
other sounds of Quenya. Why did Tolkien change it? Perhaps also for euphony.
The sound is unknown in Finnish, Tolkien's inspiration for Quenya. Through
the years as he gradually perfected Quenya, he seems to have made the
phonology of Quenya closer and closer to Finnish. This would be one example
of it.