Re: [tied] Greek labiovelars

At 4:05:02 AM on Tuesday, March 14, 2006, Sean Whalen wrote:

> --- "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

[...]

>> *g, *gH, and *gWH all become OIr /g/; *gW becomes OIr
>> /b/. Jackson says that all of this is Common Celtic, at
>> least initially.

> I looked at a few sources (most very old) but it
> seems like gWH remains separate from gH:

I presume that you mean in Common Celtic. Matasovic appears
to agree, and at least one of your examples looks
legitimate, but two definitely aren't:

> *gWHer-; gorim (I warm) OIr; gwre:s (heat) Welsh

The <w> is a vowel; this is /gure:s/. Also, it may be an
idiosyncratic development; Pokorny gives <groez>, <grouez>
as the Breton cognates and refers the reader to Pedersen for
an explanation of the <w>.

> *gWHen-d-; geind (wedge) Ir; guenn M. Breton

OIr <genn> (I presume from *<gend>) 'a wedge, a block of
wood'; Pokorny gives Br <genn>, MCo <genow>, Co <gedn>, and
W <gaing> and derives the lot from *gHe(n)d-. The MBr form
is clearly not representative.

Brian