Re: Ktistai

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>> But the same anlaut stop might appear in some unpredictable Slavic
>> alternation:
>> Russian tsvetI, Polish kwiat, "flower" cf.
>> Engl twig, ON kvistr "twig", kvisl "(river, tree) branch"

>> and if we assume a similar meaning "set of wooden slats" as for
>> Gmc
>> *bo:k-, we could reconstruct for Slavic "book":
>> *kYeŋ-a- -> *kYing-a- -> kniga, and
>> *kYeŋ-ka -> *kYŋeg-ka- -> Pol. książka

> Perhaps better:
> *kYŋ-énk-a -> *kYn-íng-a -> Russ. etc kníga
> *kYŋ-énk-ka -> *kY-éNg-ka -> Polish książka
> cf.
> *kUn-éng- > Russ. knyaz (<- *kneNz), Pol. ksiądz

Miguel, in sci.lang six years ago:

The context is initial *kUneN- > knjeN-/knjaN-. There are
early spellings with xn-, which suggest that the initial
cluster knj- (after the loss of yers) developed into ksnj-,
and the nasal was dissimilated before a following nasal
vowel (ksnjVN- > ksjVN-). In other combinations, the /s/
was eventually lost, and we have knj- or kn- (with
depalatalization), e.g. knieja (kneja).

Brian