Odp: Labiovelars

----- Original Message -----

From: Gregory L. Eyink

To: cybalist@eGroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 7:29 AM

Subject: [cybalist] Labiovelars

Here's a follow-up to my first response.

 

The Romanian reflexes of Latin "labiovelars" are p and b also when the Latin protoform goes back to PIE *k+w, *g+w or *gH+w (not only apă 'water', but also iapă 'horse' and limbă 'tongue, language' < lingua- < *dngH-u:-+a:).

Sardinian shows very similar developments (aqua- > abba, lingua- > limba).

 

Let me also point out that the Hittite reflex of the labiovelar series is k(u)w. Given the position of Anatolian relative to its IE sisters, this is another little piece of data that adds to the cumulative evidence in favour of reconstructing the PIE pronunciation as [kW].

 

As regards the possible variation ([kW] ~ [kP]) ~ [p] already in PIE, there are a few irregular alternations like *akWa: ~ *apa: '(flowing) water' to support it.

 

Piotr