From: guto rhys
Message: 12110
Date: 2002-01-22
The change initial k>p in some IE dialects such as Oscan and some dialects of Celtic seems to me very irregular as the two sounds have such different places of articulation. By what means did this mutation take place or was there an original or intermediate sound such as a guttural bilabial unvoiced plosive if such a thing is possible.
Another question which has long perplexed me is the relationship between early Brythonic and Irish. Similar Initial mutations occur in both, appearing in Brythonic before apocope and syncope which would presumably place this development before the fifth century. If both dialects had long diverged (as there respective phonology and morphology would suggest) why did such similar developments occur. There seems no evidence of initial or internal mutation (voicing etc) before the period after syncope or apocope. Are these developments in the two dialects homologous or analogous.