Res: [tied] *gHwer- 666 the beast

On 2007-09-23 23:42, Rick McCallister wrote:

> How did *gHwer- become *theros (vel.sim.) in Greek?

<tHe:r> (Aeol. <pHe:r>), to be precise. Word-initially, *g^Hw- (as in
*g^Hwe:r) and *gWH- (as in gWHer-mó-) fell together in Greek (and
several other branches).

> Was there a transition to **dh--- ?
> There is a parallel in thermos, too right?

It's the normal treatment of Proto-Gk. labiovelars before /e(:), i(:)/.
PGk. *kW, *gW and *kWH yielded Gk. t, d, tH (except in the Aeolic
dialectal area, where they developed into p, b, pH in all positions).
Compare Att. téttares, Ion. tésseres, Dor. tétores vs. Boeot. péttares,
Thess. pétores, Aeol.Hom. písures (all from *kWetwores). The
intermediate stage between labiovelars and dentals must have been some
kind of alveopalatal affricate that eventually lost its fricative component.

Piotr