--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@...> wrote:
> Can you please explain what do you mean by "fit"?
> What would be a few salient features of Germanic which does not make it "fit"?
Vocabulary. It is generally reckoned to have a very high proportion of non-IE, or at least, hard to recognise vocabulary.
Grimm's shift makes it stand out, though that's possibly dubious as a reason to exclude it from other groups.
It's a Centum language but with -m- in the oblique plural, not -b-. This is odd, as -m- in the oblique plural is also a distinctive marker of Balto-Slavonic.
Vocabulary actually pulls it two ways - connecting to Italic and Celtic, and connecting to Balto-Slavonic. I think that's just evidence of an intermediate position in a dialect continuum of disintegrating IE.
The sound shifts from PIE don't show much commonality with any other group. *o > *a is one of the few, but that's a fairly common change.
Richard.