Re: [tied] Re: Satem shift

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 8308
Date: 2001-08-04

 
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 10:54 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Satem shift

> I suppose that means they were capable of being re-kentumised without error (as long as the alternating inflectional paradigms survived)?

No, because of the irreversible merger of the *K and *KW series. Even if palatalised *K^'s had been converted back into velar stops, there would be no way to recover the old contrasts by re-labialising old *KW's (Germanic, like nearly all other centum-type languages, has different reflexes of *K/*K^ and *KW).
 
Piotr