Battle of the cow

Piotr provides an interesting post:

>From a proterokinetic u-stem alternation like *gWoh3u-/*gWh3ou-,
>we get *gW�:us (originally disyllabic with initial stress, hence
>the circumflex), gen.sg. *gWous < *gWh3ou-s, loc.sg. *gWowi < *gWh3ow-i,
>nom.pl. *gWo:wes < *gWoh3-ow-es, more or less as reflected in Old Indic.
>Slavic derivatives containing *gov- would
>be based on the oblique stem *gWow- < *gWh3-ow-.

But I'm hesitant... I would dare interpret "cow" another way,
without *H3. How 'bout this:

Mid IE Late IE
obl.sg *gWa:u nom.sg *gWo:u-s
loc.sg *gWow-i
gen.sg *gWau-s� gen.sg *gWous
obl.pl *gWa:u(-�s) nom.pl *gWo:w-es

>The laryngeal (when it still existed) caused syllabification problems; this
>is why the reduced form *gW(h3)u- > *g(W)w- is rarely attested except in
>some compounds and derivatives like Toch. A ki < *gw-ih2- and Gk.
>(hekatom-)be: < *-gw-ah2.

Yet, you're saying that it STILL exists. Therefore, it apparently
didn't create too much of a syllabification problem. It's
interesting to note that my early prothetic *a- idea should be
relevant here if what you say is true. We would have had
messy *CCC- situations in Late Mid IE like **g(W)xWw- which
would have necessitated *a-, producing **ag^xWw- and later
**og^xWw- (this result is based on the example of *ok^to:u
from *kWetWaxe). Instead, we only have *gw-ix- and *-gw-ax,
which tells me that there is no such *H3 present.

- love gLeN






_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp