On 2006-03-09 14:05, tgpedersen wrote:
> Kuhn ascribes those Germanic words with geminates (especially those
> where geminate alternates with single consonant) to the
> Nordwestblock substrate. He also questions Kluge's law. Note that
> many of them have no good cognates outside of Germanic.
But Kluge's Law is based rather safely on examples that clearly belong
to inherited vocabulary and which make no sense without it. Suffice it
to mention such showcase items as *lig^H-náh2- > *likko:- 'lick' or
*doik^-nó- > *taikna- 'sign, token' (from *deik^- 'show). There is no
geminate in the latter case, since full nasal assimilation doesn't
operate after long vowels and diphthongs, but the first stage of Kluge's
Law (interacting with GV and VL and changing their output) is well
visible there. If one doesn't accept Kluge's Law, one is left to
desperate ad hoc solutions like Pokorny's "alternative form" of the
*deik^- root, *doig^- (supported only by Germanic examples!); that's
really no acceptable alternative for an explanation that assumes nothing
but regular development.
Piotr