"No. It's not a rule that concerns romance languages, but, apparently all,
languages. When a voiced consonant is followed by an unvoiced consonant the
universal reaction is to devoice the former." Jean-Paul G. POTET, FRANCE
"Not so. Lachmann's law in Latin, that the vowel before a voiced consonant
is lengthened before the -t- of the past participle, requires that such
assimilation has been suspended. This law is not found outside Italic."
Richard WORDINGHAM, ENGLAND
I don't know Lachmann's law, so I have to rely on you for it. I'll go to the
site you mentioned when I have time for that.
So, how do you account for [b] in Lat. <inscribere> and [p] in Lat.
<inscriptio>? (The <e> of <-ere> is short. The <i> of <--io> is short.)