Re: [cybalist] Hamp and his dog, an IE shepherd

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

From: Glen Gordon

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 5:13 AM

Subject: Re: [cybalist] Hamp and his dog, an IE shepherd

>   *pku- as the unstressed (zero-grade) composition form of *peku- is
> >DIRECTLY attested in Iranian,

Alright... in Avestan and Sogdian. That's it?

 

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Well, Iranian in general. You said you haven't heard of ANY examples, and I gave you SOME, so don't be too fussy. A little is better than nothing.

 

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>   The word-initial simplification of *pk to *k is evident in Greek
> >kteis/ktenos 'comb' (< *pkten-; cf. Latin pecto, pecten).

The problem is that there's never any strongly attested cognate series with
*pk-. As usual, we can cite various words here and there in a piecemeal case
for *pk-. Above, Latin has pec- with inserted *e. It could just as well have
been that *pek- didn't reduce to zero-grade at all in IE.

 

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Reduction was variable between obstruents; most likely a reduced vowel in that position was either further reduced to zero or strengthened to *e depending on various factors, not unlike Slavic yers. What amount of evidence would you expect for an EXTREMELY rare cluster like *pk? I'm happy there is ANY evidence at all, even for a "piecemeal" case.

 

Piotr