The letter Vav

A question in history of Hebrew phonetics: was ו pronounced as a V or W? In research done about the subject most communities that were in Arabian countries the sound was of a W with some exceptions (such as Morocco). In European countries the accent probably changed at some point, and the attested sound is of a V. The pronunciation of V is the common one used in modern Hebrew, with some words that use the W sound. In comparative linguistics both sounds are attested in related languages. The probability is very high that the sound depended on regional accents, and there was no official way of pronouncing the letter. We find in 2nd-4th century Hebrew words that had phonetic mistakes in the spelling that show variant spellings that confused ב/ו that might indicate a V sound and not a W. However, the Samaritan accent sounds the ו as B making it possible that what they confused was B/V and not B/W. In comparative Hebrew the Samaritan Hebrew is used as a testimony of possible accent of Hebrew from the 2nd temple and later Hebrew. What ever the case may be, there is no actual way of knowing the original sound, but we know that W was very common, even in Europe.