Re: [tied] a:/o: merger

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 9896
Date: 2001-10-01

Even in Germanic, *a: > o: need not be very old if Silva Ba:cenis was Beech Forest. What I mean is that there was no "Common North European" merger of *a: and *o: (as opposed to the corresponding short vowels).
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Sergejus Tarasovas
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 11:29 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] a:/o: merger

--- In cybalist@......, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@......> wrote:
> *a: and *o: did _not_ merge in Balto-Slavic. They merged in Proto-
Slavic and, independently, in _some_ Baltic dialects (Old Prussian).
Even standard Lithuanian, in which *a: > o:, keeps it different from
*o: > uo.
>
> Piotr
>

To be pedantically precise,
1. merged in some, not all, positions in Old Prussian.
2. merged in most Samogitian (^zemai~c^iu,) dialects of Lithuanian as
well (*a:, *o: > uo or even u:).
3. And of course we all know of that quirks in Proto-Slavic which
formally don't let us state they merged in a sense '*a: and *o:
reflexed equally in all equivalent positions' (cf., eg, *-a:n >
*<o,>, while *-o:n > *y2).

Sergei