On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 13:40:26 -0300 (ART), "Joao S. Lopes"
<
josimo70@...> wrote:
>Let me pick three words as example: nyx, onyx, lykos
>
>IE *n.kWt- > *nukt- > Greek nyx (nykt-) "night"
>IE *H3o-n.gWH- > *o-nugH- > Greek onyx (onykh-) "nail"
>IE *wl.kWos > *wluko- > Greek lykos "wolf"
>
>Perhaps more two words can be added to this list: nymphe: and gymnos.
Sihler gives the folowing examples for "Cowgill's law" (o >
u / LAB _ SON | SON _ LAB):
*nokWt- : nuks "night"
*bholyom : phullon "leaf"
*moleh2 : mule: "mill"
*h3noghW- : onuks "nail"
verbal suffix *-nh3- : -nu- (e.g. *str.-n-h3- > stornu-)
*nogWnos : gumnos "naked"
*mormo- : murme:ks "ant"
*pro-mno- : prumnos (?) "underside"
*h1noh3-mn: onuma (besides onoma) "name"
*kWetwores : pisures, pesures (besides tessares etc.) "4"
I don't think the law is tenable in general (I count 20
entries under moR-, against 12 for mu(:)R- in Boissacq's
Greek etymological dictionary). Still, the above examples
must be indicative of something.
I have suggested earlier that some of these correspond to
forms where I would reconstruct **u: for a remote stage of
the proto-language. A good example is *nokWt-, which
according to my rules is regularly derived from *nú:ght-
(*u: > o, *gh > *ghW after *u, *ghW > *kW before *t [I need
*gh, or perhaps *g, because a proto-form **nu:kt- would by
my rules have given *noh3t-]. I don't think it likely that
Greek is so phonetically archaic as to have retained the *u:
as /u/, but it *is* imaginable that the /u/ (shortened) was
maintained in an oblique **nu:ghtás (> nuktós), instead of
expected *n.kWtós. Likewise in the obliques *h3n(u)ghWés,
*h1n(u)h3mnós or in a thematic form like *n(u)gWnós. The
nominatives nuks, onuks etc. would then be analogical after
the oblique forms.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...