I am nor sure that we allowed to speak of metathesis in these
examples, since we do not have a phoneme which moves from one
location to another. IE *nokWt is *not* n+V+k+w+t, but n+V+k(w)+t.
The phoneme u is not identical to the phoneme kw, but has only one
feature in common, the rounding.
I supsect that this phenomenon is somehow related to the unexpected
risening of the vowel before a (Proto-Greek, not PIE!) labiovelar in
hippos < i-qo, e-qo < *ek'wos.
--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "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.
>
> My question is:
> These shifts represent a regular trend in IE>Greek
(sonant+labiovelar > sonant+u+velar) or may be loans from another IE
language (but very close to Greek)
>
>
> Joao SL
>