Miguel on Celtic *p > something...
>I don't think /f/ is a necessary intermediate step. The development
>might have been /p/ (phonetic [ph], as in English, or Welsh) > /h/ >
>zero. Similarly in Armenian.
Don't mean to be alarmist or radical or anything but... I was thinking about
the likeliest evolutional path of IndoTyrrhenian's phonological system to
Tyrrhenian (and ultimately to Etruscan). I haven't found conclusive stuff on
the evolution of IndoTyr *p yet, but I get the feeling that:
IndoTyrrhenian Tyrrhenian Etruscan
*p *f /f,v/ ?
*b *p /p/
By having *p become *f, it completes a "fricative series" consisting of *x
(from uvularized velar stops, distinct from the IndoTyrrhenian laryngeal
written as *h) and *s' (from palatalized non-fortis dental stops).
Basically, the Tyrrhenian phonological system would contain the following:
*f *x *s' [fricative]
*p *k *t [lenis (plain)]
(*p:) *k: *t: [fortis]
And then I get to wonderin'... Could there be a possible phonetic
relationship between IE *PerkWnos and Etruscan /Velchns/ (< ? Tyrrhenian
*Felkena-se)?
At any rate, I've also found that treating mediofinal fortis stops (*t: and
*k:) like doubled plain stops or geminates works best when it comes to some
reshuffling of syllabic boundaries that require *CVC syllables only...
eg: IndoTyr *deuk:e "daughter" (CVC-CV)
=> *d'eukke (CVCC-CV !!!)
=> Tyr *s'ekke (CVC-CV)
=> Etr s'ec
The geminate thing is eerily Uralic-ish looking.
Anyways, if Tyrrhenian dialects (excluding the one that gave Etruscan and
Lemnian) spread to Europe BEFORE IndoEuropean did (starting 6000 BCE or so),
as I personally am led to believe, an early Tyrrhenian *p->*f change might
be relevant to the later Celtic and Germanic changes (both soften *p -> *f
or *h/zero, afterall). Areal influence, anyone?
Just thoughts. Feel free to crush them :)
- gLeN
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