Re: Austronesian d/l/n/r

--- In cybalist@..., "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@..., "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> > In general Austronesian has much vacillation d/l/n/r (see eg. all
> the
> > variations on 'lima' "five" in the various Austronesian

languages).

> >
> > http://www.zompist.com/anes.htm#malayo
>
> I looked at the descendants of 'telu' "three", 'lima' "five"
> and 'walu?' "eight". What I saw looked like regular changes plus
> additions of affixes, and complete replacement of 'walu?' and
> sometimes 'lima'. Sometimes intervocalic /l/ has a different fate

to

> initial /l/, but I noticed nothing unusual. The reflexes of 'telu'
> often suggest an ancestral form like *tetelu, but that is the
> greatest of the irregularities. What _vacillation_ do you see

there?

>
> Richard.

The idea of interchangeable d/l/n/r came from a book on Austronesian
I read a year ago; I forgot the title, and I don't even
think "interchangeable" is the right word (and what happened in the
various languages of course doesn't count as evidence of it), my
memory just tells me there's something there. I'll reborrow it next
time I'm at the Linguistics library.

Torsten