Re: [tied] IE -rl- > Indo-Iranian ?

From: petegray
Message: 4497
Date: 2000-10-24

Joao asks


>What's the result in Indo-Iranian (IIr) of PIE -RL- ? R? L? LL?
If PIE L > IIr R, why there are sometimes IIr L for L ?

One explanation is that the particular words come through different
dialects, some of which generalised PIE /r/ to "r", and others to "l". This
phenomenon is widely known elsewhere. For example, Latin ruber, plostrum,
bos all come from a non-Roman dialect.

There may, of course, be other factors involved as well.

Szemerenyi says: "Old Iranian /l/ became /r/ throughout, while in Old Indic
dialect mixture has confused the original situation to such an extent that
/l/ and /r/ can each represent IE *r or *l"

Peter