Good day, Piotr and all.
Piotr wrote:
(2)
VERNER'S LAW
A
voiceless fricative (*f, *þ, *x or *s) remains voiceless if it is initial
or immediately preceded by a stressed vowel, or if it forms a cluster with
another voiceless obstruent (e.g. *xs, *fs, *ft); otherwise it becomes
voiced:
This is the
classical formulation of the law and the one I've been taught myself. It implies
that this voicing phenomenon took place after the operation of Grimm's law.
However, I remember reading in P. Ramat's _Einfuehrung in das Germanische_ that
there is a new theory proposing that Verner's law is an independent lenition
process predating Grimm's law. This seems quite uneconomic to me, but then I
think of Old Norse _ylgr_ "she-wolf" where the voicing of IE *kW seems
to have taken place before the *kW > *p (> *f) shift. I'd like to know
your opinion about it.
Thanks in
advance,
G.
P.